THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


UNIVC«6ITY 


'Zyi/y  t^y.'^Ay 


THE   LIFE 


OF 


NAPOLEON     BONAPARTE 


BY 


S.  BARING-GOULD 


y 


\ 


NEW     AND    CHEAPER    EDITION 


NEW    YORK 
FREDERICK    A.  STOKES  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


t^l 


\ 


PREFACE 

^^N  being  asked  by  my  publishers  to  undertake  a  Life  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte, 
on  the  lines  of  my  Lives  of  the  Julian  and  Claudian  Caesars  in  my 
Tragedy  of  the  Ccesars,  I  shrank  from  the  task.  In  the  first  place,  I  considered 
that  the  life  of  the  Great  Napoleon  had  been  done  many  times,  and  done  well, 
and  that  there  was  nothing  really  new  to  be  said  upon  the  matter.  And 
secondly,  I  knew  what  an  enormous  mass__of  material  would  have  to  be 
digested  in  order  to  do  the  work  at  all  adequ^ely. 

On  further  consideration,  I  agreed  to  undertake  the  task,  if  I  might  so  far 
reduce  the  limits  of  the  work  as  to  make  it  actually  a  study  of  the  character 
and  opinions  of  Napoleon,  and  might  lay  on  one  side  what  concerned  his 
military  achievements  and  the  political  importance  of  his  life,  so  far  as  did 
not  bear  on  the  development  of  hisjjund  and  the  movements  of  his  heart.  In 
the  next  place,  material  has  recently  been  accessible  for  such  a  study  that  was 
inaccessible  before. 

After  Waterloo,  when  Napoleon  saw  that  his  career  of  glory  was  at  an  end, 
he  committed  a  bundle  of  papers,  in  a  brown  cover,  to  Cardinal  Fesch,  sealed 
with  the  Imperial  signet.  This  was  taken  to  Rome,  but  Fesch  never  took  the 
trouble  to  open  it.  On  his  death  in  1839,  the  parcel  went  to  his  grand  vicar, 
the  Abbe  Lyonnet,  who  sold  them  to  M.  Guillaume  Libri,  a  rather  unscrupulous 
man,  and  he  made  some  slight  use  of  the  papers  contained  in  the  bundle,  and 
sold  nearly  all  of  them  to  Lord  Ashburnham.  When  in  the  possession  of  the 
Earl,  they  were  inaccessible  to  every  one  till  the  collection  was  sold.  Lord 
Ashburnham  asked  for  the  budget  ^300,000.  In  1884,  they  were  sold  for 
675,000  francs  to  Italy,  and  are  now  deposited  in  the  Medicaean-Laurentine 
Library  at  Florence. 

The  parcel  contained  the  MSS.  of  Napoleon  at  an  early  age,  between  1786 
and  1793,  and  are  of  material  value  for  the  study  of  the  formation  of  his 
mind  when  in  its  plastic  condition.      These  papers  have  been   published  by 


21il9i^ 


viii         THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

M.  Frederic  Masson,  under  the  title  of  Napoleon  Inconnu,  Paris,  1895.  These 
were,  therefore,  available  to  assist  me  in  my  study. 

According  to  the  limitations  I  have  imposed  on  myself,  I  have  considered 
Napoleon  from  one  point  of  view  only.  I  do  not  pretend  to  have  said  anything 
about  him  that  has  not  been  said  before ;  all  I  have  attempted  to  perform  has 
been  to  collect  those  notices  which  are  important  for  the  examination  of  the 
great  man's  inner  life;  and, as  the  period  of  youth  is  that  in  which  the  character 
is  formed,  I  have  tarried  longest  thereon. 

The  materials  for  this  period  are  comparatively  few,  and  the  Bonapartists 
have  striven  hard  to  depreciate  the  value  of  the  memoirs  of  Madame  Junot  and 
of  Bourrienne,  who  give  us  the  most  ample  information  we  have,  and  can  have, 
on  this  period.  Mme.  Junot  may  have  fallen  into  small  inaccuracies,  and 
Bourrienne  may  have  been  actuated  by  personal  resentment ;  but,  on  the  whole, 
their  narratives  bear  upon  them  the  stamp  of  truth,  and  we  may  trust  both 
writers,  especially  the  former,  for  the  impression  made  on  them  by  Napoleon 
during  his  early  career. 

The  recently  published  memoirs  of  Barras  contribute  nothing  of  real  value ; 
all  they  actually  do  is  to  confirm  the  estimate  already  made  of  the  man. 

Everyone  brought  in  contact  with  Bonaparte  felt  the  fascination  of  his 
personality,  and  he  exercises  this  power  still  on  all  who  write  or  read  of  him. 
But,  at  the  same  time  that  with  half  one's  heart  one  loves  and  admires  him,  with 
the  other  half  one  dislikes  and  shrinks  from  him.  There  was  in  him  little  of  the 
gentleman,  as  we  understand  the  word,  not  so  much  as  is  to  be  found  in  a 
second-class  English  shopkeeper ;  and  yet  we  must  allow  that  this  was  not  his 
fault — it  was  the  fatal  result  of  his  antecedents  and  his  education.  An  atheist 
father  had  not  scrupled  to  have  his  son  educated  to  be  a  priest ;  and  fraud  and 
falsehood  seem  to  have  been  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  young  mind  of 
Napoleon  was  reared.  Mean  and  ignoble  associates  in  his  youth  taught  him  to 
despise  man,  and  to  disbelieve  in  high  ideals  ;  but  then,  when  the  character  of 
man  takes  its  direction,  for  good  or  for  evil,  he  wilfully  turned  from  the  great 
and  honourable  hero  of  his  boyhood,  and  sought  association,  and  linked  his 
fortunes  with  those  whom  in  his  heart  he  despised.  That  moral  defection 
affected  him  throughout  life. 

The  collection  of  contemporary,  or  nearly  contemporary,  illustrations  in  this 
work  comes  from  three  collections  made  by  M.  Armand  Dayot,  and  published 
by  him  in  his  Napoleon  racont(^  par  r linage^  Paris,  1895,  ^^^  forms  the  really 
important  element  in  this  book. 

To  me,  a  student  of  human  nature,  the  work  has  been  one  of  intense  interest, 


PREFACE 


IX 


not  second  to  that  of  following  the  histories  of  the  first  Roman  princes,  in 

connection  with  their  authentic  portraits  in  marble.     And  I  must  request  the 

reader  to  bear  in  mind  that,  in  writing  it,  I  pretend  not  to  give  a  history  of 

Europe  in  the  Napoleonic  age,  nor  to  describe  military  achievements,  but  to 

bring  before  him,  as  far  as  I  can  read  it,  the  study  and  development  of  his  mind 

and  character. 

In  conclusion,  it  would  be  indeed  ungrateful  if  I  were  not  to  express  my  deep 

obligation  to  my  cousin,  Mr.  George  Young,  for  his  help  and  advice,  that  have 

been  to  me  of  the  greatest  advantage  ;  and  to  the  Rev.  Robert  Gwynne,  vicar  of 

S.  Mary's,  Charing  Cross  Road,  for  revision   of  the  proofs.     I  shall  indeed  be 

surprised  if  many  mistakes  have  escaped  his  keen  eye. 

« 
Lew  Trenchard 


mm 


HAT  AND  CUSHION 


CONTENTS 

I. 

EARLY    YEARS 

The  several  elements  that  go  to  make  up  character — Difficulty  of  arriving  at  these  in  the  case  of 
Napoleon — The  origin  of  the  Buonaparte  family — History  of  Corsica — The  Vendetta — Paoli — 
Annexation  to  France— Charles  Buonaparte — The  baptism  of  Nabulione — Doubt  as  to  the  date 
of  Napoleon's  birth — The  Count  of  Marbeuf — Laetitia  and  her  children — Saveria — Reasons  which 
may  have  produced  the  mystification  relative  to  the  date  of  Napoleon's  birth — His  neglected 
education — At  Autun  .......      page     i 

II. 

BRIENNE 

(may    19,    1779—30   OCTOBER,    1784.) 

Napoleon  at  Brienne — His  lonely  condition — Bourrienne's  account — Letter  of  Napoleon  to  his  father 
— Napoleon  in  his  hermitage — His  explosions  of  anger — Napoleon  in  confinement — Napoleon's 
History  of  Corsica — Formation  of  his  character  at  Brienne — Appearance — First  feelings  that  he 
was  a  man,  .  .  .  .  .  ....        14 

III. 

THE     MILITARY    SCHOOL,     PARIS 

(OCTOBER  30,  1784— OCTOBER  30,  1 785.) 

Arrival  of  Napoleon  in  Paris— The  character  of  the  school — The  death  of  his  father — Sole  authority 
for  this  period — Napoleon  and  the  Permons — His  irritability — Puss  in  boots — Phihppeaux — 
Character  of  Napoleon  at  this  period      .  '.  .  .  .  .         .       19 

IV. 

THE   ARTILLERY    LIEUTENANT 

(OCTOBER    30,     1785 — SEPTEMBER     15,     1786.) 

Napoleon  sent  to  Valence — A  dull  town  —  Revolutionary  ideas — The  books  read  by  Napoleon — 
Three  manuscripts  of  this  period — Death  of  the  Comte  de  Marbeuf — Obtains  leave  of  absence 
— The  condition  of  mind  of  Napoleon  at  this  time  ...  .  .         .       24 

V. 

A   HOLIDAY 

(SEPTEMBER    I5,    I786— JUNE    I,    I788.) 

Return  of  Napoleon  to  Ajaccio — His  appearance — His  manner — Condition  of  the  family — Politics  in 
Corsica — Signora  Laetitia's  chastisement  of  Napoleon  and  Pauline — Obtains  an  extension  of  leave 
— And  again  another — At  mess  with  French  officers — Obliged  to  return  to  his  regiment    .         .       29 


xii  THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

VI. 
AUXONNE 

(JUNE,    1788 — SEPTEMBER    I5,    I789.) 

Method  for  obtaining  prolongation  of  leave — Ease  of  getting  any  sort  of  certificate  in  Corsica — At 
Auxonne — "  Royal  Authority  " — Deficiency  of  moral  sense — The  meeting  of  the  National  Assembly 
— The  taking  of  the  Bastille — Mode  of  life  at  Auxonne — Applies  again  for  leave  of  absence — 
Mob  rises — Insubordination  in  the  regiment — Hard  literary  work  of  Napoleon — His  enthusiasm 
for  Corsica  unquenched — His  feeling  against  France — The  three  groups  of  his  MSS. — His  purpose 
at  heart       .........       page  32 

VII. 
AJACCIO   AND   BASTIA 

(SEPTEMBER   30,    1789— JANUARY   3I,    I79I.) 

Condition  of  parties  in  Corsica — Letter  of  Bonaparte  to  Paoli — Napoleon  begins  agitation  at  Ajaccio — 
Then  goes  to  Bastia,  vi^here  he  stirs  up  a  riot — Returns  to  Ajaccio — Corsica  incorporated  into  the 
French  Empire  —  Provokes  a  riot  at  Ajaccio  —  Election  at  Orezza  —  Paoli  chosen  President  — 
Extension  of  leave  of  absence  .  .  .  .  .  •  •         •       35 

VIII. 
AUXONNE   AND   VALENCE 

(FEBRUARY    I,    I79I — AUGUST    3O,    I79I.) 

Return  to  Auxonne  with  Louis — Badly-spelled  letter  —  Poor  lodgings — Louis — Paoli  shows  coldness 
towards  him  —  Goes  to  Valence  —  Lodges  with  Mile.  Bou  again  —  His  kindness  to  her  —  The 
Limonadiere — An  active  member  of  the  Republican  Club  —  Flight  of  the  Royal  Family — The 
Commemoration  of  the  14th  July — Feeling  in  the  Army — Napoleon  desires  to  go  to  Paris — Kings 
of  oxen  and  horses — The  Army  of  Observation — Napoleon  obtains  a  new  furlough  .         .       39 

IX. 

CORSICA   AGAIN 

(SEPTEMBER    6,    179I — MAY   2,    I792.) 

Return  of  Napoleon  to  Ajaccio — Coldness  of  the  Paolists — Death  of  the  Archdeacon — His  money — 
Condition  of  affairs  in  the  island — The  riots — Election  of  officers  for  the  Municipal  Guard — 
Napoleon  eligible  for  place  of  Adjutant-major — All  officers  ordered  to  be  with  their  colours  for 
review  on  ist  January,  1792 — Napoleon  neglects  to  obey — His  letters  to  the  Commissioner — The 
day  of  election  approaches — Napoleon's  plans — Coup  de  main — Its  success — Is  elected — Encourages 
a  riot — Second  attempt  on  the  Citadel — Reprimanded — Leaves  for  Paris  .  .         .       44 

X. 

THE   SUMMER    OF    '92 

(may   28— SEPTEMBER    7,    I792.) 

Bonaparte  in  Paris — Bourrienne  again  with  him — The  20th  June — The  loth  August — The  impression 
produced  on  him  —  Lack  of  officers  —  Reinstated  in  the  Army  and  advanced  to  be  Captain  — 
Reprimanded  for  the  events  of  April — Lucien — His  self-conceit — Dissolution  of  the  Royal  Schools 
— Bonaparte  applies  for  permission  to  conduct  his  sister  home — Letters  of  Elise — Napoleon  embarks 
— The  effect  produced  on  his  mind  by  the  events  of  the  summer  .  .  .         .       50 

XI. 

THE  ATTEMPT   ON   SARDINIA 

(SEPTEMBER    I7,    1792 — FEBRUARY   ?8,    I793.) 

Napoleon  again  in  Corsica — Paoli  all-powerful — He  mistrusts  Napoleon — Bonaparte  had  lost  faith  in  the 
Jacobins — Summoned  to  Corte — Stormy  scene — Difficulty  in  deciding  what  were  Napoleon's  inten- 


CONTENTS  xiil 

tions  at  this  period  —  Advisability  of  annexing  Sardinia  —  The  Marseillais  —  Quarrel  with  the 
Corsicans — Failure  of  the  attempt  on  Cagliari — The  landing  at  Magdalena  also  a  failure — Moral 
degradation  of  association  with  such  a  man  .  .  .  .  .      page  56 

XII. 
THE  CAMPAIGN  AGAINST   PAOLI 

(FEBRUARY   28— JUNE    II,    1793-) 

The  failure  of  the  Sardinian  expedition — Loss  of  Napoleon's  letters  to  Salicetti — News  arrives  of  the 
execution  of  the  King — Indignation  in  Corsica — Growing  opposition  to  the  French  rule — Coalition 
of  parties  —  Difficulties  of  Bonaparte's  position  —  Dissimulation  —  Has  Paoli  denounced  by  the 
revolutionary  clubs — Lucien's  narrative — Salicetti  afraid  of  a  rebellion- in  .Corsica — Attempt  to 
deprive  Paoli  of  his  power — Paoli  summbned  to  France — Refuses  to  go — ^Address  from  the 
Marseillais  to  the  Convention — Decree  of  April  2nd — Rebellion  breaks  out  in  Corsica — Double  game 
played  by  Bonaparte — Joseph  made  Salicetti's  secretary — Another  attempt  on  the  citadel  of 
Ajaccio — Fails — Obliged  to  fly  to  Bastia— Meditates  a  fifth  attempt — Expedition  against  Ajaccio — 
Fails — Flight  of  Signora  Bonaparte— He  sends  a  memorial  to  the  Minister  of  War — He  and  his 
family  leave  Corsica — Great  moral  change  in  him  .  .  .  .         .       6i 

XIII. 
LE  SOUPER   DE  BEAUCAIRE 

(JUNE   26— JULY  29,    1793.) 

The  Bonaparte  family  at  Toulon — The  Jacobins  at  Paris— Uprising  in  the  south — Its  failure— The 
Revolutionary  Committee  paid  by  the  Government — Reduction  of  Avignon — Beaucaire — The  supper 
at  Beaucaire — A  new  basis  for  Right,  i.e.  Might — Napoleon  then  unaware  of  his  powers  .         .       6& 


XIV. 
TOULON 

(SEPTEMBER,    1 793 — MARCH,    1 794.) 

Bonaparte  rejoins  his  regiment — At  the  siege  of  Avignon — The  Souper  de  Beaucaire  printed  at  public 
cost — The  Bonaparte  family  provided  with  places— False  statements — ^Joseph  and  the  Clary  family 
— Siege  of  Toulon — Carteaux— Bonaparte  appointed  to  command  the  artillery — Appointment  of 
Dugommier — Fort  Mulgrave  taken— Faron  captured — Toulon  falls — Butchery  therein — Bonaparte's 
dislike  to  massacre — Callousness  of  Napoleon — A  story  of  the  &iege — Barras  and  Napoleon — 
Bonaparte  and  Marat — Banquet — Makes  the  acquaintance  of  Junot — False  statements — Appointed 
General — Lucien  Bonaparte — Napoleon  denounced — Escapes — How  he  curried  favour  with  the 
Deputies — And  won  the  liking  of  a  number  of  young  officers — Napoleon  the  servant  of  a  faction  he 
disbelieves  in  .  .  .  .  .  .  •  •         •       73 

XV. 

UNDER  ARREST 

(APRIL    I— SEPTEMBER    I4,    I794.) 

Affairs  in  Corsica — Lacombe  mistrusts  Bonaparte— Corsica  under  the  domination  of  England — Genoa — 
The  Army  of  Italy  and  of  the  Alps — The  campaign  of  the  month  of  April — Growing  mistrust  of  the 
Corsicans — Bonaparte  makes  a  friend  of  the  younger  Robespierre — What  to  be  done  about  Genoa — 
Bonaparte  despatched  thither — The  object  of  his  mission— He  returns  to  Nice — Robespierre's  fall — 
Consternation  among  his  adherents  in  the  south— Salicetti  turns  against  Bonaparte— Bonaparte's 
letter  to  Tilly — His  arrest — Proposal  of  Junot  and  Marmont— Napoleon  declines  it— His  letter  to  the 
Commissioners  —  Reasons  of  his  arrest  —  He  is  released  —  The  effect  of  his  arrest  upon  his 
opinions       .  .  .  .  .  .  .  ...       85 


xiv        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

xvi. 

UNDER  A  CLOUD 

(FEBRUARY — SEPTEMBER    1 7,    1795.) 

Bonaparte  regarded  with  suspicion— An  attempt  on  Corsica — Napoleon  engaged  in  it— Failure— Louis  as 
Lieutenant— False  statements— Suspicion  with  which  the  Corsicans  were  regarded— Disgrace  of  the 
Bonapartes— Leaves  Marseilles— Badly  reported  of—Calls  on  Aubry— Imprisonment  of  Lucien— 
Napoleon  evades  going  to  the  Army  of  the  West— Troubles  in  Paris— The  ist  Prairial— Salicetti's 
proscription— Concealed  by  Mme.  Permon— Bonaparte's  suspicions— Escape  of  Salicetti— Mme. 
Junot's  account  of  Napoleon— Junot  in  love  with  Pauline— Doulcet  succeeds  Aubry— Napoleon  in 
better  hopes— His  schemes — Memorial  of  Bonaparte — Warned  that  he  will  be  struck  off— Struck  off 
the  Active  List — Looks  forward  to  a  revolution — Stendhal's  account  of  Napoleon  .       page  93 

XVII.  >/^ 
THE    13TH   VENDEMIAIRE 

(OCTOBER   4 — 25,    1795.) 

Reaction — Feeling  in  France — The  Conventionals  draw  up  a  new  Constitution — The  riders  to  the 
Constitution  rejected  by  the  Paris  Electorate — The  Jacobins  also  dislike  the  Convention — Attempt 
to  conciliate  them — A  crisis  at  hand — Bonaparte  given  the  command  of  the  forces  in  Paris — The 
13th  Vendemiaire — Critical  position  of  Bonaparte — Barras  and  Napoleon  shift  the  opprobrium  on  to 
each  other — Bonaparte  reinstated — Made  Commander  of  the  Army  of  the  Interior— Consequences  of 
the  coup  d'etat — Napoleon  helps  on  his  brother — His  seal  on  France        .  .  .         .     105 

XVIII.  , 

JOSEPHINE 

(OCTOBER   26,    1795 — MARCH    9,    1 796.) 

Jealousy  of  Napoleon — He  is  uncomfortable  in  Paris — Thinks  no  more  of  Desiree  Clary — Nor  for  a  time 
of  the  East — The  Court  of  Barras — The  house  of  the  Permons — He  sets  up  a  carriage — Neglect  of 
Bourrienne  when  in  danger — Josephine  de  Beauharnais — Her  history — Her  character — The  Memoirs 
of  Barras — What  brought  Napoleon  and  Josephine  together — Barras  speaks  with  Bonaparte — The 
Marriage  on  the  9th  March — Napoleon  really  in  love  with  Josephine — Ever  loved  her        .         .112 

XIX.  y 

THE     ITALIAN     CAMPAIGN 

(march    10 — NOVEMBER,   I796.) 

Napoleon  starts  for  Nice — The  Army  of  Italy — Resignation  of  Scherer — Directions  given  to  Napoleon — 
Condition  of  the  Army — Reconstruction — Condition  of  the  Austrian  and  Piedmontese  armies — 
Advantages  possessed  by  Napoleon — The  Army  to  maintain  itself — The  Proclamation  of  the 
27th  March — Political  situation — Napoleon  disregards  the  directions  given  him — The  Armistice  of 
Cherasco — Another  Proclamation — Excitement  in  France — The  Directory  divides  the  command — 
Remonstrances  of  Napoleon — The  Directory  gives  way — Is  afraid  of  him — Republicans  in  Italy 
deceived — Insurrection — Treaty  with  Naples — French  rapacity — Liberal  cant — Treaty  with  the  Pope 
— Renewed  campaign  against  the  Aus^rians — Victories — Areola — Portrait  by  Gros — Results      .      122 

XX. 

THE    CISPADANE    REPUBLIC 

(OCTOBER,    1796 — FEBRUARY,    1797.) 

Want  of  sense  of  honour  and  truth  in  Napoleon — What  his  object  now  was — To  break  the  Austrian 
power — To  wrest  the  power  from  the  Directory — Treatment  of  Clarke — Dealings  with  the  Pope — 
Peace  of  Tolentino — Fails  to  send  money  to  the  Directors — Difficulty  of  realising — Keeps  the  money 
for  his  Army — Appoints  his  own  man  to  the  management  of  the  Finances — Numbers  of  soldiers 
under  him— Devotion  to  Napoleon — Hypocritical  treatment  of  the  Italians  .    ■         .         .     140 


CONTENTS  XV 

XXI.        . 

LEOBEN  AND   CAMPO-FORMIO 

(JANUARY— OCTOBER    l8,    1797.) 

Fourth  attempt  of  Austria — Defeat  of  Rivoli — The  Grand  Duke  Charles  in  command — Hoche — Threats 
addressed  to  the  Venetians — Leoben — Invades  Venice — Gives  Venice  to  Austria — Summer  at  Monte- 
bello— Court  there — Treaty  of  Campo-Formio — Napoleon  surrounded  by  spies — Aim  of  Napoleon  at 
this  time  ........         page  147 

XXII. 

THE    i8th   FRUCTIDOR 

(SEPTEMBER   4,    I797.) 

Differences  between  the  Directory  and  the  Councils — Coalition  against  the  Directors — Opinion  formed  of 
Napoleon  and  of  Pichegru  by  Chenier — Dumolard's  motion — Bonaparte's  furious  letter — The  crisis 
approaches — The  Army  sounded — Napoleon's  appeal  to  the  soldiers — Hoche  comes  to  Paris — 
Withdraws — Lavallette's  reports  to  Bonaparte— Bonaparte  unwilling  to  be  present  at  the  cottp  d'etat 
— The  1 8th  Fructidor — Festival  of  the  New  Year — Talleyrand  enters  into  correspondence  with 
Napoleon — The  Directors  desire  war — Napoleon's  conduct — Ulterior  aims  .  .         .      155 

XXIII. 
IN    PARIS 

(OCTOBER    17,    1797— MAY   4,    I798.) 

Peace  of  Campo-Formio — Dissatisfaction  at  Paris — A  necessity  to  Napoleon — Schemes  for  an  Oriental 
'  expSHItion— N apoleon  without  a  rival — Pretends  to  desire  to  retire — Proclamation  to  the  Cisalpine 
Republic— Advice  to  Joseph — Attempt  against  England  planned — Bontemps— Carnot — In  Paris — 
Reception — Grand  ceremony — Address  of  Bonaparte — He  suspects  the  Directors  of  seeking  his  life — 
Fails  to  get  appointed  a  Director — Albert  de  Permon  and  Bonaparte — He  starts  for  a  visit  of  inspec- 
tion— Dissuades  from  a  direct  attack  on  England — Preparations  for  the  Egyptian  campaign — He  is 
willing  to  be  away  from  France — Napoleon's  opinion  on  Cromwell — Offers  his  resignation — Final 
hesitation    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  ...     163 

XXIV. 

THE   FAMILY   BONAPARTE   IN    1797 

First  impressions  of  Napoleon  on  Doris— Opinion  of  d'Harved — Joseph  Bonaparte— Lucien — Louis — 
False  statements  again  —  Madame  Bonaparte  —  Marriage  of  Elise  —  Pauline  and  Freron  — ' 
Josephine     .  .  .  .  .  .  .  ...     170 

XXV. 

EGYPT 

(1798.) 
Policy  of  securing  Egypt  long  entertained — Secrecy  as  to  the  destination  of  the  expedition — Recklessness 
of  the  undertaking — Napoleon's  real  object  in  leaving  France — How  money  was  procured — The 
composition  of  the  Army  of  Egypt — Proclamation  to  the  soldiers — English  fleet  at  fault — The 
voyage — Capture  of  Malta — Disembarkation — Hardships — Discontent  of  the  soldiers — Proclama- 
tion to  the  Arabs — Instructions  left  with  Brueys — Destruction  of  the  French  fleet  in  Aboukir  Bay — 
Napoleon  enters  Cairo — Letter  to  Joseph — News  of  the  loss  of  the  fleet  reaches  him — He  throws  the 
blame  on  Brueys — Discouragement  of  Bonaparte — Pretends  to  be  a  Mussulman — Revolt  at  Cairo — 
Cruelly  suppressed — Proclamation — Scheme  of  an  Oriental  Empire         .'  .  .         .174 

XXVI. 
SYRIA 

(FEBRUARY    II— OCTOBER    8,    1799- ) 

Project  of  an  advance  into  Syria — Plan  of  invasion  of  India — Advance  through  the  desert — At  Jaffa — 
Slaughter  of  the  garrison  which  had  surrendered — Excuses  made  by  Bonaparte — March  to  S.  Jean 


/^ 


A 


xvi        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

d'Acre-Sir  Sidney  Smith — The  plague  breaks  out— Disappointment  of  Napoleon  at  being  unable  to 
reduce  Acre — Detestation  of  the  English — Retreat  from  Acre — His  bulletins — Devastation  of  the 
country — Miserable  condition  of  the  soldiers — The  story  of  the  poisoning  of  the  sick — The  visit  to  the 
hospital  at  Jaffa — Continued  retreat — Arrival  at  Cairo— Duplicity  of  Napoleon  relative  to  religion — 
Victory  of  Aboukir— The  Second  Coalition— Disasters  in  Europe  to  the  French — Napoleon  deter- 
mines to  return  to  P'rance— Lands  at  Frejus — His  feeling  towards  human  misery — Abhorrence  of 
purposeless  cruelty      ........     fo-g^  i86 

XXVII. 

THE    i8th   BRUMAIRE 

(OCTOBER    16 — NOVEMBER    ID,    1 799-) 

Reception  of  the  news  of  the  landing  of  Bortaparte — Plots  in  Paris— Changes  in  the  Directory — The 
Jacobins — Barras — Napoleon's  journey  through  France — Real  feeling  in  France  at  the  time — Schemes 
of  Bonaparte — All  France  summons  him  to  save  the  Republic — He  enters  into  relations  with  all 
parties — With  Moreau — With  Sieyes — Makes  preparations  with  the  troops — Scene  in  the  Council  of 
the  Ancients  on  the  i8th  Brumaire — In  that  of  the  P'ive  Hundred — Appeal  to  the  soldiers — Loses  his 
presence  of  mind — Lucien  comes  to  his  aid — Threat  of  outlawry — Proclamation  to  the  people — The 
fable  of  the  poignard — Prorogation  of  the  Councils— The  apppointment  of  three  consuls — Effrontery 
of  Lucien — Madame  de  Remusat  on  the  state  of  feeling  in  France  .  ...      199 


XXVIII. 

THE   FAMILY   BONAPARTE   IN    1799 

The  character  of  Barras — His  notice  of  Josephine — Her  character — Noble  conduct  of  Napoleon — 
Disillusioned — The  effect  of  this  on  his  character — Bonaparte  and  Pauline  Foures— Quarrel  between 
him  and  Josephine — Reconciliation — Bonaparte  false  to  the  memory  of  the  dead — And  to  the  living 
— Contempt  for  mankind — Disbelief  in  friendship — Sieyes — Lsetitia  Bonaparte — ^Joseph — Misstate- 
ments— Lucien — Christine  Bonaparte — Elise  Bacciochi — Pauline — Le  Clerc — Pauline's  dresses — 
Pauline  and  Madame  Contadeo — Caroline — Her  pride — Napoleon  had  in  him  points  of  resemblance 
to  his  brothers  and  sisters  .  .  .  .  .  ...     214 


XXIX. 

THE    CONSULATE 

(1800.) 

Disappointment  of  the  Republicans — Sieyes  set  aside — Also  Roger- Ducos — The  new  Constitution — Its 
control  over  popular  representation— Bureaucracy — Power  of  First  Consul — Money,  how  raised — 
Genoa — Holland — Hamburg — Portugal — The  system  of  plunder  pursued — Reorganisation  of  the 
Finances — Pretence  of  a  desire  for  peace— England's  mistrust — Massena  in  Italy — The  Army  of 
Reserve — The  passage  of  the  Alps — Marengo — Inexplicable  delay  of  Napoleon — Marengo  gained  by 
chance— Jealousy  of  Moreau — Of  Macdonald — Of  Kleber — Bernadotte — Inspires  love  in  Junot — In 
the  soldiers — Review — The  comrade — Cajolery  of  Moreau — Gift  of  pistols  .  .         .     224 


XXX. 

THE    FIRST   STEP   TO   THE   THRONE 

(1800.) 

Bonaparte  moves  into  the  Tuileries — Ovation  to  Washington — Preparations  made  in  the  Tuileries — 
Presentation  of  Ambassadors — Costume  arranged — Suppression  of  journals — Repeal  of  law  against 
emigrants — Severity  in  La  Vendee — Institution  of  a  secret  police — Its  origin — Method  adopted  to 
revive  a  sense  of  honour — Attempt  to  conciliate  the  Church — Translation  of  the  body  of  Pius  VI. 
—  Te  Deum  at  Milan — Schemes  for  a  Concordat — How  he  represented  the  matter  to  freethinkers 
—Mot  of  La  Fayette  .       .  .  .  .  .  ...     239 


y 


CONTENTS  xvii 

XXXI. 

IN   THE   TUILERIES 

The  epochs  in  Napoleon's  life — Personal  appearance — Changes  as  he  becomes  successful — Dread  of 
assassination — Dislike  of  the  Jacobins — Also  of  the  Royalists — Hatred  of  England — Belief  that 
England  encouraged  attempts  on  his  life — Plots  made  against  him — That  of  CaracoUi  and  Arena 
— That  on  the  3rd  Nivose— Severe  measures  against  leading  Jacobins — He  had  no  desire  for  a  long 
peace — His  personal  appearance  and  habits — Rudeness  to  ladies — The  kingdom  of  Etruria  founded 
— Visit  of  the  King  and  Queen  to  Paris — "Parallel  between  Caesar,  Cromwell,  and  Bonaparte"; 
ill  received — Moves  to  S.  Cloud — Disdains  his  membership  of  the  Institute  .  .     page  246 

XXXII. 

^^HE    SECOND   STEP   TO   THE   THRONE 

(1 80 1-2.) 

Napoleon's  views  with  regard  to  religion — -The  Concordat — Injustice  done  to  the  Constitutional  Church 
—  Pius  VI.  desires  to  destroy  this  Church — Napoleon  and  Protestantism  —  Cardinal  Consalvi  — 
Concordat  concluded — Te  Deum  at  Notre-Dame — All  bishops  ordered  to  resign — The  institution 
of  the  Legion  of  Honour  —  Opposition — Peace  of  Amiens  signed  —  Consulship  for  life  —  Great 
opportunities  for  good  before  Napoleon — Neglected  by  him — Actuated  by  ambition  .         .     253 

XXXIII. 
PREPARATIONS    FOR  WAR 

(1803.) 

Napoleon's  hatred  of  England — The  Press  stifled — Attacks  in  the  Moniteiir  on  England — Complaints 
made  against  England — Demands  made  by  Napoleon — Rupture  with  England — The  arrest  of 
English  residents — The  murder  of  the  Due  d'Enghien — The  guilt  rests  on  Napoleon — His  object — 
The  case  of  Pichegru — Conspiracy  of  Cadoudal — Trial  of  Moreau — Death  of  Captain  Wright — 
Disappearance  of  Bathurst — Death  of  Villeneuve — Preparations  for  war — Loss  of  Egypt — France 
desires  peace — Attempts  made  to  provoke  a  war  fever — The  Church  seconds  Napoleon — Plunder 
of  other  states— Insolent  letters — Entry  into  Amiens — The  road  to  England      .  .         .261 

.    XXXIV. 

«/the  throne 

(DECEMBER     2,     1804.) 

Determination  of  Napoleon  to  become  Emperor  —  The  title  of  Emperor  offered  him — Accepted — 
Unanimous  approbation  of  the  French — Creation  of  a  court — And  court  etiquette  revived — 
Napoleon  requires  the  Pope  to  crown  him — Expediency  of  this — The  scruples  entertained  by  the 
Pope — Napoleon  vague  in  his  promises — The  Pope  consents — Met  at  Fontainebleau  by  Napoleon — 
Preparations  for  the  ceremony — The  dolls  designed  by  Isabey — Letter  from  Napoleon  to  Josephine— 
Quarrels  in  the  Imperial  family — The  train  of  the  Empress — The  pageant  starts  from  the  Tuileries 
— Arrival  at  Notre  Dame — The  train  again — The  cetemony — Napoleon  crowns  himself  and  Josephine 
— Napoleon  finds  fault  with  Mme.  Junot — Quarrels  again — French  vanity — David's  picture — The 
Coronation  a  right  thing — Fouche's  opinion  .  .  ,  ...     273 

XXXV. 

AUSTERLITZ 

(1805.) 

Preparations  for  the  invasion  of  England— The  difficulties  multiply — The  distribution  of  eagles  and 
stars — At   Boulogne — Accident   to   flotilla — Napoleon   realises   the  difficulty  of  his  undertaking — 
Naval  failures — The  Principality  of  Lucca — Deficiency  of  money  in  France — Change  of  purpose — 
Campaign   against   Austria  —  Mack    on    the    Danube  —  Capitulation    of    Ulm — Austerlitz — Lying 
bulletins — Proclamation— Financial   position   of  France — Meeting  of    the   Emperors   Francis  and 
Napoleon — Treaty  of  Presburg  .  .  .  .  ...     294 

b 


xviii      THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

XXXVI. 

NEW   FEUDALISM 

Return  to  Paris — Scapegoats  made  for  the  financial  depression — Report  on  the  state  of  the  Empire — 
Trafalgar — The  column  of  the  Place  Vend6me — Invasion  of  Naples — ^Joseph  created  King — Other 
creations — The  idea  of  Napoleon  as  to  a  new  nobility — Lucien — Madame  Mere — Jerome — 
Separated  from  his  wife — The  Pope  refuses  to  decree  a  divorce — ^Jerome  given  a  wife  and  a 
kingdom — Napoleon  and  the  Pope — Louis  created  King  of  Holland — Joseph  at  Naples — Napoleon's 
treatment  of  his  kinsmen — The  resemblance  and  dissimilarity  in  the  Bonaparte  family — Pride  in 
Napoleon  in  founding  a  dynasty — Other  reasons — Insatiable  ambition  ,  .     page  308 

XXXVII. 

JENA 

(1806.) 

Neutrality  of  Prussia— Forced  into  hostility  to  England — Fox  at  the  head  of  the  Government  in  England 
— The  Hanseatic  towns — Conferences — The  South  German  Confederacy — The  Grand  Duchy  of 
Berg  and  Cleves — Francis  resigns  the  Imperial  crown — Gentz  and  Arndt — Execution  of  Palm — 
Agitation  in  Germany — Duplicity  of  Napoleon  in  his  dealings  about  Hanover — In  other  matters 
— The  Northern  Confederacy — Inertness  of  the  King  of  Prussia — Napoleon  determines  to  crush 
Prussia — War  declared — Prussia  unprepared — The  battles  of  Auerstadt  and  Jena— Rout  of  the 
Prussians — Invasion  of  Prussia — Napoleon  in  Berlin — Prince  Hatzfeld — Coarse  attacks  on  the 
character  of  the  Queen — Napoleon's  brutality  towards  women — As  shown  by  his  treatment  of 
Mme.  Junot — The  Continental  System — Encourages  smuggling — Baron  Stein     .  .         .     320 

XXXVIII. 

THE  CAMPAIGN  IN   POLAND 

(winter  of  1806-7.) 

Deputation  from  Paris — The  French  people  desire  peace — Kosciuszko — A  proclamation  from  him  forged 
— Agitation  among  the  Poles — Napoleon  offers  them  no  guarantees — Resolves  on  entering  Poland 
— Arrives  in  Warsaw — Condition  of  the  country  in  winter — Napoleon's  proclamations — Crosses 
the  Vistula— Peace  signed  with  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  who  is  created  King— Russia  at  war  with 
Turkey— Communications  with  the  Sultan— March  of  the  Russians— Battle  at  Pultusk— Defeat  of 
the  French — Battle  of  Eylau — A  second  defeat— Critical  position  of  Napoleon — Liaison  with  the 
Countess  Walewska — Letters  to  Josephine — Fresh  levies  ordered  by  Napoleon — Battle  of  Friedland, 
and  defeat  of  the  Russians — The  Czar  resolves  on  peace — The  Sultan  thrown  over — Interview  at 
Tilsit — Napoleon  cajoles  the  Czar — The  Peace  of  Tilsit— Humiliation  of  the  Prussian  King  and 
Queen — The  creation  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw — Napoleon  not  to  be  blamed  for  disappointing 
the  Poles  .  ,  .  ,  .  •  ...         336 

XXXIX. 

SPAIN 

(1807-8.) 

The  project  of  seizing  on  the  Danish  fleet  frustrated — Napoleon  resolves  on  securing  that  of  the 
Portuguese — Expedition  of  Junot — Also  fails — Escape  of  the  Royal  Family  of  Portugal — Harsh 
treatment  of  the  Portuguese— The  Pope  forced  into  the  Convention — Invasion  of  Rome— Spain 
occupied  by  French  troops — The  Royal  Family— Arrest  of  the  Prince  of  the  Asturias — Reconciliation 
— Murat  sent  into  Spain — Revolution — Proclamation  of  Ferdinand — Intervention  of  Napoleon — 
Savary  sent  to  Madrid — Treachery  towards  the  Prince — He  is  induced  to  come  to  Bayonne — The 
Prince  of  the  Peace  and  the  King  and  Queen  also  drawn  there — Napoleon's  opinion  of  the  Royal 
Family — Riot  at  Madrid — Repressed  by  Murat — The  King  and  the  Prince  forced  to  resign  their 
claims  and  rights — Talleyrand  constituted  gaoler  of  Ferdinand — To  what  extent  his  conduct  may 
be  excused,  but  not  justified     .  .  .  .  .  ...     352 


CONTENTS  xix 

XL. 

A    TURNING-POINT 

(1808-9.) 

The  national  spirit  roused  by  Napoleon — This  he  was  incapable  of  appreciating — The  uprising  in 
Spain — He  could  not  think  it  was  considerable — Change  in  the  conditions  of  warfare — His  Army 
a  conglomerate — His  enemies  now  animated  by  love  of  liberty — Inferiority  of  the  generals  who 
had  been  opposed  to  him — They  were  hampered  whilst  he  was  free — A  free  hand  given  to 
Wellington — The  feeble  character  of  the  monarchs  in  Europe — Change  in  Napoleon's  mode  of 
making  war — He  was  warned  against  his  Spanish  enterprise — Withdrawal  of  Talleyrand — 
Champagny — Manufactory  of  false  news — Disappointment  of  Murat — Joseph  made  King  of  Spain 
— Napoleon  leaves  Spain — His  belief  in  his  Divine  mission — The  Imperial  Catechism — Severity 
because  he  held  resistance  to  his  will  the  same  as  resistance  to  God — Portraits  of  the  Emperor  not 
to  be  trusted — A  few  sketches  more  worthy  of  consideration    .  .  .  .     /«^<e  369 

XLI. 

HOLLAND 

•  (1806-10.) 

Napoleon  and  his  brothers — The  Republic^  called  into  brief  existence — Louis  appointed  King  of  Holland 
— Character  of  Louis — Scandal — Louis  dislikes  Continental  System — Rebuked  by  Napoleon — 
Threatened— Violent  Letters— TL,ouis  endeavours  to  protect  his  people — French  troops  enter 
Holland — Louis  summoned  to  Paris— Placed  under  the  eyes  of  spies — Submission  of  Louis — His 
letter  to  Napoleon — The  answer  of  the  Emperor — Apocryphal  letter  fabricated  at  S.  Helena — 
Quarrel  over  the  coachman  of  the  Legation — Louis  flies — And  abdicates — Letter  to  Louis  dictated  to 
Otto— Incorporation  of  Holland  into  France  .  .  ....     382 

XLIL 

THE    PEACE    OF  VIENNA 

(1809.) 

Reorganisation  of  the  Austrian  Army — Napoleon  remonstrates — Interview  at  Erfurt — Assembly  of 
Princes — Preparations  for  war — Mistakes  of  Austria — Defeat  of  the  Archduke — Lobau — Aspern  and 
Esslingen — Inactivity  of  the  Prussians — Death  of  Lannes — The  battle  of  Wagram — Armistice  of 
Znaim — The  Peace  of  Vienna — Forgery  of  Austrian  bank-notes  contrived  by  Napoleon     .         .     391 

XLIIL 
MARIE    LOUISE 

(1810.) 

Napoleon  offers  for  the  hand  of  the  Archduchess  Catherine,  who  is  speedily  married  to  the  Duke 
of  Oldenburg — His  intention  communicated  to  Cambaceres — Marie  Louise  proposed — Imperious 
demand  for  the  hand  of  the  Archduchess  Anna — He  resolves  on  marrying  Marie  Louise — ^Josephine's 
long  dread  of  being  divorced — Napoleon  tells  her  his  intention — Sad  scene — Family  council — 
Meeting  after  it  of  Napoleon  and  Josephine — ^Josephine  leaves  for  Malmaison — The  dissolution  of 
the  marriage — Napoleon's  interview  with  Marie  Louise — The  re-marriage — Description  of  the  new 
Empress — Napoleon  recognises  that  he  made  a  mistake — Statue  of  the  Emperor  by  Canova      .     400 

XLIV. 

ROME 

(1809-18 10.) 

Resentment  against  the  Pope — Letters— Decree  destroying  the  temporal  power — Rome  reorganised — 
Treatment  of  the  Pope,  Pius  VII.,  at  Savona — The  Cardinals  brought  to  Paris — Do  not  appear 
at  his  marriage — The  Galilean  Church — Opposition  of  the  Pope — The  fall  of  Napoleon  in  no  way 
due  to  his  treatment  of  the  Pope — Restoration  of  abuses  on  the  return  of  Pius  VII.  .         .     412 


XX         THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


/ 


XLV. 
THE   CONTINENTAL   SYSTEM 


Birth  of  the  King  of  Rome — Anticipations  of  a  fall — The  oppression  of  the  Continental  Blockade — The 
Russians  dissatisfied — Poland — The  victories  of  Wellington — Decree  of  Berlin — That  of  Milan — 
Smuggling — In  Hamburg — Monopolies — Sweden — Licences — Infatuation  of  Napoleon    .    page  417 

XLVI. 
/  GREATNESS  OR  LITTLENESS 

Hatred  of  England  actuating  Napoleon — His  anxiety  to  read  and  see  all  said  of  him  by  the  English 
Press — His  suspicious  nature — A  bit  of  paper — Rudeness  to  ladies — A  breakfast  scene — Forgetfulness 
of  names — Immoralities — Lack  of  feeling — Overbearing  conduct — A  dinner  with  Joseph — Duplicity 
— Letter  to  Eugene  Beauharnais — Determination  to  be  first  in  everything — Aping  of  Royalty — 
Arrogates  all  glory  to  himself,  and  throws  all  blame  for  mistakes  on  others — Belief  in  himself — 
Former  dreams  of  Oriental  conquest — Gives  way  to  a  dream  of  imitating  Charlemagne — Madame 
de  Remusat's  estimation  of  his  character — His  double  nature  .  ...     426 

XLVII. 

MOSCOW        ♦ 

Unreality  of  the  Alliance  at  Erfurt — Alexander  obliged  by  his  people  to  break  with  Napoleon — His 
personal  grievance — Napoleon  still  determined  on  the  Continental  Blockade — The  French  people 
prepared  for  war — Election  of  Bernadotte — Dissatisfaction  of  Napoleon — Plan  of  defence  agreed 
upon — The  Emperor  warned  against  the  war — His  purposes — Signs  of  deterioration  in  his  condition 
— The  star — Slowness  of  preparations — Becomes  again  sanguine — At  Dresden — Contingents  sent 
to  his  aid — France  also  becomes  sanguine — The  campaign — Destruction  of  Moscow — Resolve  on 
retreat — Chooses  one  route — Has  to  relinquish  it — Agitation  of  mind — The  retreat  from  Moscow 
— Arrival  at  Smolensk — Passage  of  the  Berezina — Napoleon  deserts  the  Army — Arrival  in  Paris 
— Resumes  his  self-coiifidence — Words  of  Byron    .  .  .  ...     433 

XLVIII. 
LEIPZIG 

(1813.) 
Rapp  foresees  the  danger — The  oppression  of  French  rule  in  Germany — The  united  people  of  Germany 
resolve  to  be  free — Desperate  condition  of  Prussia — General  Yorck  goes  over — War  proclaimed — 
Enthusiasm  in  Prussia — Korner — Flight  of  the  King  of  Saxony— Fresh  levies  ordered  in  France — 
Manifesto  of  Louis  XVIIL— Impatience  of  the  French  people  at  the  war— Disposition  of  the 
Chambers  —  Antagonistic  pamphlets  —  Dissatisfaction  among  the  Generals  —  The  alienation  of 
Bernadotte — And  of  Murat — Napoleon's  Army  uninterested  in  his  plans — Routs  now  no  longer 
the  consequence  of  a  defeat,  except  in  his  own  armies — Battles  of  Liitzen  and  Bautzen — Death 
of  Duroc— Depression  of  the  Emperor — Fatal  mistake  of  agreeing  to  an  armistice — Violation  of 
the  armistice  —  Murder  of  Korner — Metternich's  proposals — Interview — News  of  the  battle  of 
Vittoria  reaches  him — Austria  joins  in  the  coalition — Francis  not  cordial — Napoleon  despises  the 
Landwehr — He  is  deceived  by  the  peasants — His  generals  defeated— Battle  of  Dresden — Secession 
of  the  Bavarians  and  others— Intended  march  on  Berlin — Council  at  Duben — Order  for  retreat — 
The  Battle  of  the  Nations — Retreat — Napoleon  leaves  Germany  .  ...     444 

XLIX. 
THE    ABDICATION 

/  (9   NOVEMBER,    1813 — 6  APRIL,    1814.) 

Adulation— Report  of  the  Legislative  body— Anger  of  Napoleon — Violent  address— Fresh  conscription 
— Reorganisation  of  the  army — Defection  of  Murat— Meeting  with  Talleyrand— Address  of  the  Allies 
to  the  French  people — The  half-heartedness  of  the  Emperor  Francis — Advance  of  the  Allies — Incapa- 
city of  Schwarzenberg — Congress  of  Chatillon — Caulaincourt's  instructions — Napoleon  takes  leave  of 


V. 


CONTENTS  xxi 

the  National  Guard — Skilful  movements — Defeat  of  Blucher — Defeats  Schwarzenberg — Again  falls 
on  Blucher — Exultation  of  Napoleon — Refuses  to  sign  Treaty — Napoleon  pursues  Blucher — Influence 
of  Lord  Castlereagh — Treaty  of  Chaumont — Advance  of  Allied  Army — Daring  scheme  of  Napoleon — 
Mutiny  in  his  army — The  Alhes  advance  on  Paris — Paris  capitulates — Bonaparte  hastens  to  Fontaine- 
bleau — His  condition — The  marshals — He  abdicates — Wishes  to  withdraw  his  abdication — Attempts 
to  poison  himself         ........     page  459 


ELBA 

(6   APRIL,    1814—27    FEBRUARY,    1815.) 

Forms  fresh  schemes — Communicates  them  to  Oudinot — Commissioners  appointed — Rudeness  to  the 
Prussian  Commissioner — Farewell  to  the  Old  Guard — Departs — Interview  with  a  cure — Violence  of 
the  mob — Napoleon  and  the  hostess — Meeting  with  Pauline — Recognises  an  old  soldier — Sails  for 
Elba — Arrival — Takes  possession  of  a  barren  islet— Iron  mines — Household  of  Napoleon — Return  of 
soldiers  to  France — Napoleon's  dread  of  being  transferred  to  the  West  Indies — Visit  of  the  Countess 
Walewska — Intrigues — Merchants'  wives — Change  of  the  Czar's  feelings — Napoleon  and  Sir  Neil 
Campbell — Expectations  in  P'rance — Visited  by  his  mother  and  by  Pauline — Murat  gained — Escape 
from  Elba    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  ...     475 

LL 
THE     HUNDRED     DAYS 

(l    MARCH— 14  JUNE,    1815.) 

Voyage  to  France — Arrival  in  the  Gulf  of  S.  Juan — Meeting  with  the  Prince  of  Monaco — ^Coolness  of  his 
reception  in  Provence — Proclamation  to  the  soldiers — ^Joined  by  soldiers  at  Grenoble — The  soldiers 
desert  the  Comte  d'Artois — Triumphal  march — Feeling  in  France — ^Flight  of  the  King — Bonaparte 
enters  Paris — Reception^Lack  of  enthusiasm — Lucien  and  the  Constitutional  party — Obliged  to 
accept  their  aid — Difficulty  in  filling  the  places  in  his  ministry — Congress  of  Vienna — ^Its  dissensions 
— News  reaches  it  of  the  landing  of  the  Emperor — It  places  him  under  the  ban  of  Europe — Napoleon 
and  the  Jacobins — Death  of  Josephine — Cold-hearted  conduct  of  Marie  Louise — Situation  of  the 
Emperor — His  dislike  of  the  Constitutional  party — Anger  against  those  who  deserted  him         .     484 

LIL 

WATERLOO 

(15-18  JUNE,   1815.) 

Plans  formed  by  Napoleon  for  defeating  the  coalition — Frustrated  by  the  precipitation  of  Murat — 
Napoleon  and  voluntary  donations — Assertion  that  he  was  ill  during  the  last  campaign — No  lack  of 
mental  power — Wellington's  base  of  operations — Uncertainty  as  to  the  road  by  which  the  French 
would  advance — English  in  want  of  cannon — Napoleon  arrives  at  Charleroi — His  resolve  to  destroy 
the  Prussians  and  the  English  separately — Ligny  and  Quatre  Bras — ^Wellington's  force  heterogeneous 
— The  morning  of  Waterloo — Napoleon  undervalues  the  ability  of  Wellington  and  the  mettle  of  the 
British  soldier — Struggle  at  Hougomont — At  La  Haye  Sainte — Attempt  to  break  the  English  centre 
— The  squares — Approach  of  Blucher — Biilow  at  Planchenois — Change  in  the  French  disposition — 
Bonaparte  watching  the  battle — Attack  of  the  Old  Guard — Rout — Flight  of  Napoleon — Explanation 
of  the  defeat  at  Waterloo— Crucial  error  as  to  the  position  of  BlUcher — Difference  in  characters 
between  Napoleon  and  Wellington  .  .  .  .  ...     495 


/ 


LIII. 
THE    SECOND    ABDICATION 

(21   JUNE— 23  JULY,    1815.) 

The  victory  of  Ligny  announced — Rumours  of  the  defeat  at  Waterloo  reach  Paris — Napoleon  reaches 
Paris — His  condition — Arrival  of  fugitives — Meeting  of  the  Chambers — Abdication  of  the  Emperor 
demanded — Opposition  of  Lucien — Napoleon  and  Constant — -Threatens  to  dissolve  the  Chambers — 
Deputation  demands  his  abdication — He  submits — Retires  to  Malmaison— Fresh  schemes — EngUsh 
fleet  watching  the  coast — He  arrives  at  Rochefort — Surrenders  to  Captain  Maitland — Last  sight  of 
the  French  coast         .  .  .  .  .  .  ...     507 

b  2 


xxii       THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

LIV. 

S.    HELENA 

Flattering  images  before  the  mind  of  Napoleon — Disappointed — The  Bellerophon  in  Plymouth  Sound — He 
is  placed  on  the  Northtiniherland — His  protest — English  Government  forced  to  deal  in  an  exceptional 
manner  with  him — A  great  man  bears  his  fall  with  dignity :  not  so  Bonaparte — Arrives  at  S.  Helena 
— Description  of  the  island — The  Briars — Longwood— Sir  Hudson  Lowe — Napoleon's  companions — 
Rudeness  to  the  Governor — Exculpation  of  Sir  Hudson — Treatment  of  Napoleon  by  the  Government 
— Disorder  increases — Quarrels  among  his  attendants — His  personal  appearance — Dictates  the 
Alemorial — ^Judgment  on  his  conduct — Las  Cases  dismissed — O'Meara — Antommarchi — Disease 
assumes  an  alarming  character — Death  of  his  sister  Elise — Comet  seen — Makes  his  will — Bequest  to 
Cantillon — Self-assurance  to  the  end — Death  .....     page  516 

LV. 

APOTHEOSIS 

Funeral  of  Napoleon — News  of  the  death  of  Napoleon  reaches  France — Growth  of  the  Napoleonic  myth 
— Caricatures — Canonisations — Brief  retrospect         .  .  .  ...     535 

APPENDICES 

A.  Will  of  the  Ex-Emperor  Napoleon  .  .  .  .  ...     545 

B.  Some  specimens  of  Napoleon's  writing      .  .  .  .  ...     556 

Index  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  ...     565 


LIST    OF    ENGRAVINGS,   PORTRAITS,   ETC, 


Portrait  of  the  King  of  Rome;  by  Sir  T.  Lawrence,  in  the  collection  of  the  Duke  of  Bassano 

The  Imperial  Arms 

Hat  and  Cushion 

Napoleon  Le  Grand  ;  portrait  by  Baron  Gerard 

Etching  by  Meissonier 

Lsetitia  Buonaparte  ;  from  a  medallion  by  Spiesse 

The  Family  Bonaparte  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 

Portrait  of  Madame  Buonaparte  ;  from  the  picture  by  Gerard,  in  the  Versailles  Gallery 

Napoleon  and  his  Mother  ;  from  an  engraving  of  the  time  of  the  Empire 

Contemporary  Crayon  Portrait  of  Bonaparte  ;  by  one  of  his  fellow-pupils 

Winter  Games  at  Brienne  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Horace  Vernet     . 

Bonaparte  at  Brienne  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Charlet        ... 

The  Artillery  Lieutenant ;  from  an  ideal  portrait  by  Philippoteaux 

Bonaparte  at  Valence  ;  from  a  painting  by  F.  Flameng    ... 

Bonaparte  at  the  Tuileries  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Charlet 

Bonaparte  in  San  Stephano ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raftet 

Arrival  of  the  Bonaparte  Family  in  France  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 

Le  Souper  de  Beaucaire  ;  from  a  painting  by  Leconte  de  Noiiy 

Napoleon  at  the  Battery  ;  from  a  water-colour  drawing  of  the  period 

The  Siege  of  Toulon  ;  from  a  drawing  by  Job 

The  Young  Artillery  Officer  ;  from  an  ideal  portrait  attributed  to  Prud'hon   . 

Bonaparte  under  Arrest ;  from  a  drawing  by  Weber 

The  13th  Vendemiaire  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 

Portrait  of  Bonaparte  at  this  period  ;  by  Guerin  ... 

Josephine  at  Malmaison  ;  by  Prud'hon  .... 

The  First  Interview  between  Bonaparte  and  Josephine  ;  from  a  painting  by  Gervex 
Portrait  of  Josephine  ;  from  a  coloured  engraving  by  Bonneville 
Portrait  of  Bonaparte  ;  from  a  coloured  engraving  by  Bonneville     . 
Medallion  of  Bonaparte  ;  by  Boizot   ..... 

Bonaparte  ;  a  drawing  by  Hennequin,  engraved  by  Tassaert 

Bonaparte  ;  from  an  engraving  by  Marcelli  del  Giobiliti 

Bonaparte  in  Italy ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 

Bonaparte  ;  profile  Sketch  by  Gros  .  .  . 

Bonaparte  on  the  Bridge  of  Areola  ;  after  the  picture  by  Gros 

Croquis  by  David  ...... 

The  Battle  of  Rivoli ;  after  the  picture  by  Philippoteaux 

Allegorical  Engraving  of  the  Period  ;  representing  the  humiliation  of  Austria  and  the 
Bonaparte    ....... 

Bust  by  Thorwaldsen  ...... 

*'  Le  Gdneral  de  la  Grande  Nation  "  ;  unfinished  profile  by  David 
Medallion  of  Bonaparte  ;  by  David  ..... 


PAGE 

Frontispiece 
Title  page 


exaltat 


ion  of 


xxiv       THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


Bust  of  Bonaparte ;  by  Houdon,  in  the  Museum  at  Dijon 

Napoleon  in  Egypt ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet  . 

Bronze  Statuette  of  Bonaparte  in  Egypt ;  in  the  possession  of  Prince  Victor  Bonaparte 

Bonaparte  and  the  Pasha  of  Cairo  ;  from  a  coloured  engraving  of  the  period 

Sabre  worn  by  Bonaparte  during  the  Egyptian  Campaign  ;  from  the  collection  of  Prince  Victor 

France  recalling  Bonaparte  from  Egypt ;  after  Appiani    . 

The  1 8th  Brumaire  ;  from  a  composition  of  Dubroca 

Bonaparte  at  Saint  Cloud  ;  drawn  by  C.  Minnet,  engraved  by  Helmann 

The  1 8th  Brumaire  ;  by  Bouchot       .... 

The  1 8th  Brumaire  ;  after  a  contemporary  English  engraving 

The  Council  of  Five  Hundred  dispersed  ;  from  a  contemporary  engraving 

Napoleon  nominated  First  Consul ;  by  Appiani 

The  Three  Consuls ;  a  silver  medal  by  Gatteaux 

The  First  Consul  at  Malmaison  ;  by  J.  B.  Isabey 

Bonaparte  at  Marengo  ;  from  a  contemporary  engraving 

Battle  of  Marengo  ;  from  an  engraving  by  Chaffard 

Bonaparte  and  the  Battle  of  Marengo  ;  portrait  by  Bouillon 

The  Review  ;  drawn  by  Isabey  and  C.  Vernet,  and  engraved  by  Mccou 

Snuffbox  ;  by  Isabey ;  bequeathed  by  Napoleon  to  his  son 

Napoleon  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 

Bonaparte  ;  after  Philips  ;  engraved  by  C.  Turner 

The  First  Consul ;  from  a  picture  by  Greuze     . 

Attempt  of  the  3rd  Nivose ;  from  a  lithograph 

Bonaparte  in  Corsican  Costume ;  from  a  drawing  by  Vigny,  engraved  by  Benoist 

Signature  of  the  Concordat ;  from  a  drawing  by  Gerard  . 

The  First  Consul ;  from  a  drawing  by  Gehotte 

The  First  Consul ;  by  Boilly  .... 

The  First  Consul  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville ;  from  a  drawing  by  David 

English  Plum-pudding  menaced  ;  from  a  caricature  l)y  Gillray 

Bonaparte  as  First  Consul ;  after  Nadet 

King  George  III.  and  Bonaparte ;  from  a  caricature  by  Gillray 

Dolls  made  at  Nurnberg     ..... 

The  Emperor  pronouncing  the  Constitutional  Oath  on  the  Gospels,  in  the  Nave  of  Notre-Dame 

from  a  sepia  drawing  by  Isabey  and  Fontaine 
Arrival  at  Notre-Dame ;  from  a  sepia  drawing  by  Isabey 

The  Coronation  in  Notre-Dame ;  from  a  sepi^  drawing  by  Isabey  and  Fontaine 
Pencil  Sketch  of  Josephine  ;  by  David 
The  Coronation  ;  from  an  engraving  of  the  period 
Napoleon  in  Coronation  Robes  ;  from  the  portrait  l)y  Lefevre 
The  Coronation  Procession  ;  drawn  by  Nodet   . 
Profile  of  Napoleon  ;  drawn  during  Mass  in  the  Tuileries 
The  Coronation  ;  by  David  .... 

The  Emperor  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 
The  Distribution  of  the  Eagles ;  from  a  drawing  by  David 
Passage  of  the  Rhine  ;  after  an  allegorical  composition  1)y  Ingres     .   . 
The  Battle  of  Austerlitz  ;  after  Gerard 
The  Emperor  ;  from  a  drawing  by  Vigneux        .  . 

■Interview  between  Napoleon  and  Francis  II.  after  the  Battle  of  Austerlitz  ;  from  a  painting  by  Gros 
Joseph,  King  of  Naples  ;  from  a  painting  by  Lefevre 
The  i6th  May,  187 1  ;  from  a  painting  by  Paul  Robert     . 
The  Vendome  Column,  6th  April,  1814  ;  with  the  statues  by  Chaudet  and  Seurre 


ENGRAVINGS,    PORTRAITS,    ETC. 


XXV 


Jerome ;  from  a  portrait  by  Kinson    . 

Louis  ;  from  a  portrait  by  Lefevre 

Pauline ;  from  a  painting  by  Lefevre 

The  Emperor  ;  by  Meissonier 

The  Battle  of  Jena,  1806  ;  after  the  picture  by  Meissonier 

**  On  ne  passe  pas  "  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Charlet 

The  Emperor  in  Prussia  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  RafFet 

**  Mon  Empereur,  c'est  la  plus  cuite"  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 

**  Apres  vous,  Sire"  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Charlet 

Eylau.     Napoleon  passing  over  the  Field  of  Battle  ;  after  the  picture  by  Gros 

Napoleon  decorating  a  Russian  Soldier  ;  from  a  painting  by  Debret 

Napoleon  receiving  Queen  Louise  at  Tilsit ;  from  a  painting  by  Gosse 

Bust  by  Eugene  Guillaume  .... 

Napoleon  ;  from  a  coloured  engraving  by  Dahling 

Arc  de  Triomphe  de  I'Etoile  .... 

Arc  de  Triomphe  du  Carrousel  .... 

Three  Stages  in  the  Career  of  Napoleon  ;  from  an  engraving,  1829 

S.  lago  expelling  Napoleon  from  Spain  ;  from  a  contemporary  caricature 

The  triumph  of  Napoleon  ;  from  the  group  by  Cartot  on  the  Triumphal  Arch  of  I'Etoile 

Napoleon  on  the  Terrace  of  S.  Cloud,  with  his  Nephews  and  Nieces  ;  from  a  painting  by  Ducis 

Review  of  the  Troops  ;  from  a  picture  by  Bellange 

Napoleon  ;  after  an  engraving  by  Couche 

"Your  hand  !  "  ;  an  incident  of  the  passage  of  the  Danube  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 

The  Death  of  Lannes  ;  from  a  painting  by  Boutigny 

Napoleon  wounded  before  Ratisbon  ;  from  a  painting  by  Gautherot 

Napoleon  breaking  the  news  to  Josephine  ;  from  a  picture  by  Chasselat 

Napoleon  Reading  ;  a  sketch  from  Nature  by  Girodet 

The  Empress  Marie  Louise ;  by  Gerard  .... 

Reception  of  Marie  Louise  at  Compiegne  .... 

Marie  Louise  and  the  Young  King  of  Rome  ;  from  a  painting  by  Franque     . 

Baptism  of  the  King  of  Rome  ;  from  a  drawing  by  Gonbaut 

The  Hope  of  the  French  Empire ;  from  a  contemporary  engraving  . 

Napoleon  at  the  Theatre  ;  from  a  sketch  taken  from  life  by  Girodet,  April  13th,  18 12 

**  They  grumbled,  but  followed  "  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 

Napoleon  adopting  the  Child  of  a  Soldier  who  Fell  in  the  Campaign  ;  from  a  picture  by  Chasselat 

The  Retreat  from  Moscow ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Fabre  du  Faure   . 

The  Retreat  from  Moscow  ;  after  a  lithograph  by  Willette 

Napoleon  musing  over  his  Maps  at  Night ;  after  a  sketch  by  Germain  Bapst 

'*  Sire,  you  may  reckon  on  us  as  on  your  old  guard" ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 

"Attention  !  the  Emperor's  eye  is  on  us"  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 

Napoleon  seated  ;  from  a  contemporary  engraving 

Napoleon  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet  .... 

The  Standard  of  the  Chasseurs  of  the  Guard     .... 

Napoleon  taking  a  Pinch  of  Snuff;  from  a  lithograph  of  1838 

Napoleon  at  the  Time  of  the  Invasion  by  the  Allies ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet 

Napoleon  in  a  Cottage ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Bellange    . 

1 81 4 ;  after  the  picture  by  Meissonier 

"  C'est  lui ! "     Napoleon  in  a  Peasant's  House  Asleep  ;  from  a  painting  by  F.  Flameng 


An  Incident  of  the  Campaign ;  Napoleon's  silhouette,  when  asleep,  sketched  on  the  wall  by  a 

boy  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Bellange  ..... 

Driven  Desperate  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet  .... 


post- 


xxvi       THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  Abdication  ;  a  caricature  by  G.  Cruikshank 

Farewell  to  the  Old  Guard 

San  Martino ;  the  ex-Emperor's  residence  on  Elba 

Map-holder,  used  by  Napoleon  on  Elba 

Reception  by  the  Soldiers  ;  from  a  picture  by  Steuben 

*'  If  there  be  one  soldier  among  you  who  would  kill  his  Emperor,  let  him  do  so.      Here  I  am  ! 

after  a  lithograph  by  Bellange     ....... 

"Sire,  I  am  a  relic  of  Austerlitz  !"  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Charlet 

Waterloo,  1 8th  June,  1815  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Raffet  .  .  .  . 

Napoleon  ;  after  Philippoteaux  .'..... 

Napoleon  at  the  Close  of  the  Battle  ;  from  a  painting  by  Steuben    .  .  .  . 

Retreat  of  the  Sacred  Guard  at  Waterloo  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Rafiet 

Napoleon's  Redingote  and  Cocked  Hat ;  from  the  collection  of  Prince  Victor 

The  Little  Cocked  Hat ;  sketched  from  the  original  ..... 

Drawing  to  an  End  ;  from  a  picture  by  Flameng  .  .  .  .  . 

"Vive  I'Empereur  !";  from  a  crayon  drawing  by  Willette  .  .  .  . 

•  *  Monsieur  Carnot,  je  vous  ai  connu  trop  tard  "  ;  from  a  sketch  by  Forrain 

Embarkation  on  Board  the  Belle^'ophon  ;  from  a  contemporary  engraving 

Napoleon  on  the  Bellerophon  ;  from  a  drawing  by  J.  Eastlake,  engraved  by  C.  Turner 

Napoleon  on  S.  Helena  ;  from  a  contemporary  body-colour  painting 

Napoleon  at  Longwood  ;  from  a  sketch  by  General  Gourgaud  .  .  .  . 

Napoleon  Gardening ;  from  an  anonymous  engraving       ..... 

The  Exile ;  from  a  water-colour  sketch  made -by  an  English  officer  at  Longwood,  24th  July,  1820 
Napoleon  on  S.  Helena  ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Horace  Vernet         .  .  .  . 

The  Death-bed  of  Napoleon  ;  from  a  contemporary  engraving  .  .  .  . 

Napoleon's  Last  Sleep  ;  from  a  sketch  made  at  Longwood  by  W.  Crockatt,  May  6,  1821 

On  His  Death-bed ;  from  a  sketch  made  by  Captain  Marryat,  by  the  order  of  Sir  Hudson  Lowe 

** Ne  le  craignez  plus"  ;  from  an  engraving  by  Romhild  .  .  .  . 

Napoleon  Dead  ;  after  a  painting  by  Horace  Vernet         ..... 

Chair  of  Napoleon  at  S.  Helena         .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

Plaster  Cast  of  the  Face  after  Death ;  taken  by  Antommarchi         .  ... 

Napoleon's  Last  Day ;  by  Vela  .  .  .  .  ... 

The  Tomb  of  Napoleon ;  from  an  anonymous  lithograph  .  .  .  . 

Napoleon's  Straw  Hat,  worn  at  S.  Helena ;  from  the  collection  of  Prince  Victor 

The  Funeral ;  from  a  sketch  by  Captain  Marryat  .  .  ... 

The  Funeral ;  from  a  sketch  by  Captain  Marryat  ..... 

Apotheose ;  from  a  lithograph  of  1832  .  .  .  .  ... 

Reception  of  the  Body  at  the  Invalides ;  from  a  drawing  by  Ferrogio  and  Gerard 

Interior  of  the  Church  of  the  Invalides  during  the  Funeral ;  from  a  lithograph  by  Dumouza 

Cast  of  the  Face  of  the  Duke  of  Reichstadt,  Napoleon's  son,  taken  after  death 

Hat  of  Napoleon,  and  Uniform  of  the  Emperor,  with  the  Epaulettes  of  a  General  Officer  and  the 

Star  of  the  Legion  of  Honour  ;  from  the  museum  of  Sens 
The  Profile  of  Napoleon  on  his  Death-bed 


SIGNATURES   AND   SAMPLES    OF    WRITING 

Signatures  of  Bonaparte      ..... 

Letter  from  Bonaparte,  Commandant  of  Artillery,  to  General  Carteaux 

Letter  from  Bonaparte  to  Josephine 

Some  Specimens  of  Napoleon's  Writing 

Letter  of  Napoleon  .  .  .  . 


27,  321,  446,  474 

•       75 
.     121 

557-61 
.     298 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


PORTRAIT  BY  BARON  GERARD 


ETCHING    BY    MEISSONIER. 


OF -HE 

UNrvERsiTy 

^^lZ^,^    the  life 


OF 

NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE 


EARLY    YEARS 

T  N  estimating  the  character  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  and  tracing  its  develop- 
-*-  ment,  two  things  have  to  be  taken  into  consideration,  the  threads  out  of 
which  that  complexity — the  character,  is  formed,  and  the  circumstances  which 
determined  the  twist  or  texture  it  assumed. 

A  river  is  made  up  of  a  thousand  confluent  streams  rising  in  different  strata, 
that  render  the  qualities  of  their  several  waters  very  different ;  some  are  hard, 
and  some  are  soft ;  these  pellucid,  those  turbid.  The  Danube  at  Passau  con- 
sists of  the  union  of  the  milky  Inn,  white  with  loess  and  cold  with  undissolved 
snow  of  the  Alps  ;  of  the  Danube,  muddy  and  warm  from  the  broad  plains  of 
Bavaria  ;  and  of  the  Ilz,  black  as  ink  with. vegetable  matter  from  the  pine  forests 
of  the  Bohmer  Wald,  The  river  is  the  resultant  of  these  diverse  confluent 
waters,  but  its  after  course  is  determined  by  the  character  of  the  country  through 
which  it  flows  to  its  inevitable  end  in  the  deep  sea. 

Unhappily  for  the  study  of  the  character  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  we  know 
little  concerning  the  family,  or  blend  of  families,  from  which  he  sprung,  and  that 
little  is  not  absolutely  to  be  relied  on.  Whether  his  blood  was  native  Corsican, 
Tuscan,  Italian,  or  Greek,  or  a  little  of  all  these  together,  is  uncertain. 

The  truth  relative  to  the  origin  of  the  family  is  not,  and  probably  never  will 


2     THE  LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE 

be,  settled  satisfactorily ;  for  when  he  was  Emperor,  Napoleon  took  pains  to 
have  the  registers  of  Ajaccio  falsified  or  destroyed,  a  proceeding  that  can  only 
be  explained  on  the  assumption  that  they  told  unpleasant  truths,  which  he  was 
interested  in  suppressing. 

The  mystery  relative  to  his  origin  attaches  even  to  the  day  of  his  birth,  and 
in  this  he  shares  in  the  uncertainty  that  prevails  relative  to  the  date  of  birth  of 
Julius  Caesar.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  Napoleon  was  the  eldest  son  of 
Charles  Buonaparte,  an  attorney  of  Ajaccio,  in  Corsica,  and  that  he  was  born  on 
January  7th,  1768,  at  Corte,  and  not  on  the  received  date,  the  15  th  August,  1769, 
at  Ajaccio. 

Corsica  is  occupied  by  as  mixed  a  race  as  is  to  be  discovered  anywhere. 
Originally  colonised  by  the  dusky  Neolithic  race  of  rude  stone  monument 
builders,  who  have  left  their  traces  throughout  Western  Europe,  and  whose 
blood  forms  an  undercurrent  in  the  veins  of  Irish,  Welsh,  Cornish,  Aquitanians, 
and  the  main  stream  in  Spaniards  and  Portuguese — this  Iberian  or  Ligurian 
stock  received  grafts  from  Phoenicia,  Greece,  Rome ;  it  had  a  blend  through 
Vandal,  Gothic,  Saracen,  Frank,  Spanish,  French,  and  Italian  immigrations. 
The  island  became  the  very  apple  of  discord  cast  into  the  banquet  of  nations, 
to  be  striven  for  by  France,  Spain,  the  Papal  See,  and  the  Republic  of  Genoa. 
It  was  itself  a  theatre  of  domestic  strife.  A  ridge  of  mountains  separates  the 
island  vertically  into  halves,  and  each  section  had  its  inclination,  aspiration,  at 
one  time  its  very  constitution,  distinct  and  opposite  to  the  other.  That  half 
which  looked  to  the  East  looked  also  to  Italy  as  its  market,  and  for  its  alliances  ; 
that  to  the  West  looked  now  to  Spain,  then  to  France,  and  summoned  first  one 
and  then  the  other  to  foster  its  commerce  and  compose  its  rivalries. 

Strife,  bloodshed,  were  consecrated  by  the  Vendetta,  a  racial  institution,  an 
hereditary  obligation,  and  it  made  cohesion  impossible,  and  gave  occasion  to 
every  covetous  neighbour  to  seek,  with  the  certainty  of  finding,  in  the  midst  of 
the  people,  a  party  which,  for  the  sake  of  satisfying  a  family  enmity,  was  ready 
to  sacrifice  its  country. 

In  1077,  owing  to  the  anarchy  that  reigned  in  the  island,  the  clergy  advised 
that  the  sovereignty  should  be  delivered  to  the  Popes,  and  this  was  agreed  to. 
Whereupon  the  Popes  sought  to  raise  money  out  of  this  newly  acquired 
sovereignty,  and  sold  it  to  the  Pisans. 

From  misrule  under  Pisa,  Corsica  fell  under  misrule  by  Genoa.  The  Ligurian 
Republic,  as  a  sure  method  of  maintaining  its  supremacy,  armed  the  islanders 
and  encouraged  their  domestic  feuds.  Whilst  engaged  in  cutting  each  other's 
throats,  the  merchants  of  Genoa  hoped  to  exploit  the  riches  of  the  island  without 
interference.  Genoese  troops  occupied  the  fortified  towns,  and  built  themselves 
castles  where  there  had  been  none  previously ;  Genoese  officers  arrogated  to 
themselves  every  function  in  the  state,  and  Genoese  traders  drained  the  re- 
sources of  the  island  into  their  bottomless  pockets. 

As  the  fortunes  of  the  Genoese  Republic  rose  or  fell,  according  as  were  its 
alliances — with  France  or  with  Germany — so  was  Corsica  occupied  and 
devoured  by  French  or  German  troops.     At  one  time,  the  Corsicans  invoked 


EARLY   YEARS  3 

the  aid  of  the  King  of  Aragon,  and  for  a  while  the  Spaniards  held  the  island 
and  made  themselves  as  intolerable  as  those  from  whom  they  had  come  to 
deliver  the  Corsicans.  At  the  close  of  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  the  despair  of  the  tortured  islanders  threw  them  into  fierce  revolt.  The 
sea-shell,  that  had  once  served  the  Tritons,  now  acted  as  their  alarm-trumpet ; 
it  brayed  from  every  height,  and  the  Corsicans  rose  throughout  the  island  to 
expel  the  Genoese.  They  found  a  native  hero,  Pasquale  Paoli,  to  act  as  their 
leader  and  organiser,  a  man  of  ability,  intrepidity,  and  integrity. 

Paoli's  first  step  was  to  suppress  the  Vendetta,  to  take  from  private  indi- 
viduals the  right  to  revenge  their  own  and  their  family  wrongs,  and  to  place 
the  sword  in  the  hand  of  Justice.  He  rightly  judged  that  so  long  as  the 
Vendetta  was  allowed,  no  combination  against  the  common  foe  was  possible. 
He  next  extended  to  the  whole  island  the  liberal  constitution  enjoyed  formerly 
by  the  Eastern  half  only,  and  which  had  survived  the  encroachments  of  the 
Genoese.  This  constitution  was  of  a  most  popular  character — the  people 
annually  elected  all  their  officers,  and  every  political  question  was  submitted  to 
a  plebiscitum.  There  had  hitherto  been  no  territorial  nobility  in  Corsica,  except 
in  the  Western  division,  and  this  had  been  decimated  by  war,  or  expatriated  by 
its  adhesion  to  one  or  other  foreign  invader  ;  so  that  some  had  migrated  to 
Genoa,  others  to  Spain,  and  the  few  who  remained,  very  poor  and  weak,  were 
powerless  to  resist  the  popular  pressure,  and  surrendered  their  feudal  privileges 
which  they  were  unable  to  enforce,  perhaps  without  regret,  certainly  without 
protest. 

The  Genoese,  foiled  at  every  point,  were  driven  from  the  island,  and  retained 
only  a  few  strongholds  on  the  coast  which  the  Corsicans  were  unable,  for  lack  of 
artillery,  to  reduce. 

Paoli  had  directed  the  entire  movement,  but  it  was  not  enough  to  sweep  the 
enemy  away  ;  the  most  difficult  task  he  had  to  face  was  the  regeneration  of  the 
people,  and  the  regulation  of  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  Corsica.  In  order  to 
provide  education  for  his  fellow-Corsicans,  he  founded  a  University  at  Corte. 
One  of  the  mischievous  effects  produced  by  the  Genoese  domination  had  been 
that  the  native  men  had  left  the  land  to  serve  as  mercenaries  abroad,  and  though 
this  had  rendered  them  excellent  soldiers,  it  had  fostered  in  them  a  contempt 
for  manual  labour,  and  the  work  of  tilling  the  fields  had  been  left  to  the  women 
and  to  hirelings  from  Italy  and '  Sardinia.  Paoli  sought  to  remedy  this  evil  by 
the  introduction  of  wise  enactments,  which  initiated  a  new  era  in  the  life  of  the 
nation,  and  continued  in  force  after  his  rule  was  at  an  end. 

But  by  far  the  most  delicate  undertaking  was  the  smoothing  out  of  the 
ecclesiastical  differences.  Though  himself  a  sincere  Catholic,  he  would  not 
brook  the  meddling  of  the  Papal  court  with  the  political  affairs  of  Corsica,  nor 
that  the  benefices  of  the  island  should  be  employed  to  the  advantage  of  the 
favourites  of  the  Pope,  and  to  the  disregard  of  the  religious  obligations  attached 
to  them.  There  were  five  bishops  in  the  island,  where  one  would  have  served,  or 
at  most  two ;  and  the  monasteries  were  numerous.  The  prelates  in  the 
cathedrals,  and  the  heads  of  nearly  all  the  convents,  were  Italians  or  Genoese. 


4  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

With   infinite    tact  and    patience,  Paoli   succeeded    in    removing    obstructions, 
allaying  the  Papal  jealousy,  and  preventing  a  rupture  with  Rome. 

At  the  beginning  of  1764,  the  whole  island,  with  the  exception  of  the  few 
fortified  towns  still  held  by  the  Genoese,  was  enjoying  a  national  and  democratic 
constitution,  and  everywhere  tokens  of  a  prosperity  hitherto  unknown  were 
beginning  to  manifest  themselves ;  but,  better  than  all,  Paoli  had  succeeded  in 
infusing  into  the  Corsicans  a  patriotic  spirit  which  was  calculated  to  become  in 
them  an  ennobling  passion. 

All  Europe  fixed  its  eyes  on  Corsica,  as  a  country  under  an  ideally  perfect 
government,  occupied  by  an  ideally  patriotic  and  generous  people.  In  1739, 
Frederick  the  Great  had  pointed  to  the  island  as  an  example  to  the  world.  In 
1748,  Montesquieu,  in  his  epoch-making  Esprit  des  Lois,  did  the  same. 
Rousseau,  who  postured  as  the  Prophet  of  Humanity,  could  not  fail  to  instance 
the  island  in  his  Contrat  Social,  and  attention  had  been  called  to  it  in  England 
by  Boswell. 

Then — when  everything  seemed  to  promise  to  the  young  Republic  a  future 
full  of  tranquillity  and  progress — the  sky  was  suddenly  overcast. 

By  secret  treaty  between  Genoa  and  France,  in  1764,  French  troops  occupied 
San  Fiorenzo,  Calvi,  Ajaccio,  Bastia,  and  Algajola,  whilst  the  Genoese  garrisons 
slipped  away.  The  Due  de  Choiseul  had  bought  the  island,  to  indemnify  France 
for  the  loss  of  Canada.  But  the  truth  was  not  to  be  told  at  once.  To  allay  the 
suspicion  of  the  Corsicans,  and  to  deceive  Paoli,  the  most  solemn  assurances 
were  made  that  the  occupation  was  temporary.  Choiseul  protested  that  his 
Sovereign  had  no  intention  of  annexing  the  island,  and  of  interfering  with  its 
constitution  ;  and  Buttafuoco,  a  Corsican,  was  invited  to  Versailles,  as  a  com- 
missioner to  the  King,  invested  with  full  powers  to  treat  for  the  interests  of  the 
island.  In  1767  Choiseul  began  to  raise  the  mask,  for  he  demanded  that  two  of 
the  towns  occupied  by  the  French  troops  should  be  permanently  made  over  to 
the  French  Crown.  Meanwhile,  he  had  succeeded  completely  in  winning  over ' 
Buttafuoco,  in  whom  his  countrymen  reposed  unbounded  confidence. 

In  1768,  a  further  treaty  with  the  Ligurian  Republic  was  concluded,  con- 
taining further  concessions  to  France,  and  now,  without  disguise,  the  French 
began  to  extend  their  power  over  the  entire  island.  Buttafuoco  was  appointed 
to  the  administration  of  Corsica,  and  Paoli  saw  that  to  save  the  liberties  of  the 
island,  no  resource  remained  but  to  fly  to  arms. 

The  islanders  were,  however,  no  match  for  the  disciplined  forces  sent  against 
them ;  they  were  driven  into  their  mountain  recesses,  town  after  town  was  occu- 
pied, resistance  was  broken,  and  Paoli  was  constrained  to  fly,  first  to  Vienna, 
and  then  to  London. 

In  1770  the  Comte  de  Marbeuf,  appointed  Governor  of  the  island,  presided 
over  a  consulta  of  the  delegates  from  all  parts  of  Corsica,  and  announced  to  it 
that  the  transfer  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  island  from  Genoa  to  France  was 
complete  and  irrevocable,  and  that  thenceforth  Corsica  would  be  regarded  as 
incorporated  into  the  Gallic  kingdom.  Such  was — briefly  told — the  history  of 
Corsica ;  such  was  the  condition  of  the  island  when  Napoleon  was  born. 


EARLY   YEARS  5 

It  has  been  advisable,  at  some  length,  to  enter  into  the  story  of  Paoli,  and  to 
show  what  was  the  ambition  of  his  life  and  what  his  character,  for  the  extra- 
ordinary man  who  was  born  in  Corsica  as  Paoli  was  eclipsed  there,  was  largely 
influenced  by  his  example,  and  inspired  by  his  patriotism,  during  the  early 
portion  of  his  career.  He  never  lost  sight  of  what  Paoli  had  been  able  to  effect 
in  the  several  departments — political,  military,  and  ecclesiastical — and  he  sought 
later  on  to  outdo  him  under  similar  conditions,  but  on  a  far  more  extensive  field. 

The  best  substantiated  account  of  the  family  of  Buonaparte*  traces  it  from  a 
respectable  family  of  the  same  name  in  Florence.  Owing  to  political  discords, 
one  branch  was  banished — so  it  was  said — and  settled  in  Corsica.  This  much 
is  certain,  that  the  last  representative  of  the  Florentine  line,  in  1780,  bequeathed 
the  remains  of  his  little  property  to  Charles  Buonaparte,  Napoleon's  father,-  as 
his  nearest  kinsman.  But  the  separation  of  the  branches  took  place  a  long  way 
back,  for  in  1492,  when  Ajaccio  was  rebuilt,  the  Buonapartes  were  possessed  of 
a  house  in  it,  and  of  a  scrap  of  land  in  the  neighbourhood.  They  were  never 
wealthy,  but  maintained  a  respectable  middle-class  position  as  attorneys  and 
clerks. 

Charles  Buonaparte,  the  father  of  Napoleon,  was  born  at  Ajaccio,  on  the 
27th  March,  1746.  His  father,  Joseph,  had  received  a  recognition  of  gentility, 
and  a  right  to  bear  the  Buonaparte  arms  from  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  on 
the  28th  May,  1757,  and  on  June  28th,  1759,  was  formally  acknowledged  as 
allied  to  the  Tuscan  Buonapartes. 

All  the  Buonapartes  died  young.  The  Archdeacon,  Lucien,  was  the  sole 
exception.  They  suffered  from  an  hereditary  disease — cancer  of  the  stomach, 
which  carried  them  off  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine  or  forty. 

Charles  Buonaparte  was  left  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  fourteen.  He  was 
good-looking,  intelligent,  unscrupulous,  and  impecunious.  His  great-grand- 
mother had  been  an  Odone,  daughter  of  a  rich  landowner  of  Ajaccio ;  the  last 
scion  of  the  Odone  family,  dying  early,  left  his  estate  to  the  Jesuits.  The 
validity  of  this  bequest  was  contested  by  Charles,  and  this  involved  him  in  a 
series  of  litigations,  which  consumed  what  he  had,  and  brought  him  in  nothing 
of  the  Odone  fortune.  At  the  age  of  eighteen,  Charles  married  Lsetitia  Ramo- 
lino,  a  beautiful  Corsican  girl  of  respectable  ancestry,  aged  fifteen,  very  imper- 
fectly educated,  but  with  a  good  deal  of  character.  Her  mother,  left  early  a 
widow,  had  married  a  Swiss  ex-captain,  and  by  him  had  a  son,  Joseph  Fesch.f 
The  marriage  of  Charles  Buonaparte  and  Laetitia  Ramolino  took  place  on  the 
2nd  June,  1764. 

In  1767,  in  response  to  the  appeal  of  Paoli,  Charles  Buonaparte,  who  had 
been  in  Italy,  returned  to  Corsica  to  undertake  municipal  functions  at  Ajaccio, 
and  on  the  7th  January  following  (1768)  Lsetitia,  then  living  at  Corte,  bore  him 
his  first  son,  who  was  baptised  there  the  following  day  by  the  name  of 
Nabulione. 

*  The  spelling  of  the  name  was  with  or  without  the  u  in  Italian.  Napoleon  finally  dropped  the  u 
in  1796. 

t  She  was  descended  from  the  Counts  of  Collato,  magitijicos  of  Florence,  and  then  of  Genoa. 


6  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

An  exact  copy  of  the  entry  in  the  register  was  made  at  Corte,  in  July,  1782; 
but  another  copy  is  now  to  be  found  in  the  archives  of  Ajaccio,  which  differs 
from  the  above  in  that  it  gives  the  name  of  the  child  as  Joseph  Nabulion,  but  no 
date  is  appended  to  this  copy,  to  show  when  it  was  made ;  the  original  Register 
of  Baptisms  at  Corte  no  longer  exists.  According  to  the  more  authentic  copy, 
the  child  born  on  the  7th  January,  1768,  was  Nabulion  or  Napoleon,  according 
to  the  other  it  was  Joseph,  with  the  additional  name  of  Nabulion. 

Moreover,  when  Napoleon  was  married,  March  9th,  1796,  he  produced  a 
certificate  of  his  birth,  which  showed  that  he  was  born  on  the  5th  of  February, 
1768.  The  day  of  month,  and  month,  are  wrong,  according  to  the  first  copy  of 
the  register,  but  the  year  is  right. 

Again,  in  a  letter  to  Paoli,  dated  12th  June,  1789,  Bonaparte  wrote,  "  I  was 
born  when  my  country  was  perishing.  Thirty  thousand  Frenchmen  vomited  on 
our  shores,  drowning  the  throne  of  liberty  in  floods  of  gore,  such  was  the  odious 
spectacle  that  met  my  opening  eyes.  The  cries  of  the  dying,  the  sighs  of  the 
oppressed,  tears  of  despair,  surrounded  my  cradle  at  my  birth."  Now,  this 
applies  very  well  to  the  condition  of  affairs  in  January,  1768,  but  not  at  all  to 
that  in  August,  1769. 

But,  further,  the  copy  of  the  register,  with  the  name  Joseph  inserted,  as 
born  and  baptised  in  1768,  is  suspicious,  not  only  because  unsigned  and  undated, 
but  also  because  the  name  Joseph  is  in  the  French  form,  not  Giuseppe,  as 
would  inevitably  have  been  the  case  if  written  before  the  subjection  of  the 
island  to  the  French. 

Again,  when  Joseph  Bonaparte  was  married  on  August  ist,  1794,  he 
produced  evidence  that  he  was  born  at  Ajaccio,  not  Corte,  and  that  he  was  aged 
25,  and  not  26.  He  could  not,  indeed,  at  the  time,  produce  his  baptismal 
certificate,  on  account  of  the  rupture  of  communications  with  Corsica,  but  he 
brought  forward  four  witnesses,  Corsicans,  who  had  known  him  from  infancy, 
and  who  swore  that  he  was  a  native  of  Ajaccio,  and  aged  about  25.  It  is 
certainly  significant  that,  under  the  Empire,  the  original  registers  disappeared.* 

There  was,  as  we  shall  see  presently,  a  very  good  reason  why  Charles 
Buonaparte  should  desire  to  represent  his  second  son  as  born  in  1768,  and  his 
eldest  as  born  in  1769. 

It  was  not  till  the  23rd  May,  1769,  that  the  Comtede  Marbeuf,  Commandant 
of  the  island,  entered  into  any  relations  with  the  Bonaparte  family.  On  the 
2 1st  he  had  met  a  deputation  of  the  inhabitants  of  Corte,  and  on  the  23rd  he 
received  those  of  Ajaccio,  among  them  the  attorney  Charles-Marie  Buonaparte. 
All  these  had  been  devoted  adherents  of  Paoli,  and  now,  having  recognised  the 
impossibility  of  resistance,  came  to  tender  their  submission.  Charles  had  been 
secretary  to  Paoli,  then  had  gone  to  Pisa,  where  he  had  squandered  his  little 
fortune.    He  returned  to  Corsica,  and,  on  his  submission,  was  appointed  assessor 

*  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  urged  by  Frederic  Masson  in  his  Napoldon  Inconiiu,  1895,  that 
Napoleon  himself  held  his  birthday  to  have  been  in  August,  1769.  In  a  MS.  £pogues  de  ma  Vie,  from 
the  Libri  collection,  sold  to  the  late  Lord  Ashburnham,  and  now  in  the  Florence  Library,  he  enters  :  "Ne 
en  1769,  le  15  du  mois  d'aout,"  and  he  calculates  his  age  from  that  date.  This,  however,  does  not  prove 
more  than  that  he  chose  to  accept  the  date,  so  as  not  to  expose  the  fraud  committed  by  his  father. 


EARLY   YEARS 


to  the  Court  of  Justice  at  Ajaccio,  and  superintendent  of  the  School  of 
Forestry  in  the  island.  He  cultivated  the  acquaintance  of  the  Comte  de 
Marbeuf,  and  the  latter,  acting  on  instructions  from  Versailles,  did  his  utmost 
to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  petty  gentry  of  the  island,  and  to  open  to  them, 
or  their  children,  careers  in  the  service  of  the  Crown  of  France.* 

'  Charles  Buonaparte  was  fond  of  parade,  and  his  expenses  exceeded  his 
income,  so  that  nothing  was  in  hand  to  pay  for  the  education  of  his  numerous 
family,  which  was  a  burden  to  his  excellent  Lsetitia,  their  mother,  who,  though 
a  good  woman,  and  eminently  strict  and  conscientious  with  them,  was  not  herself 
sufficiently  educated  to  give  them  the  rudiments  of  any  other  language  than  the 
Corsican  patois. 

"  Her  tenderness,"   said   Napoleon  himself  at  S. 
Helena,  '"'  was  blended  with  severity ;  she  punished 
and  rewarded  at  the  same  time.     She  brought  to 
account  in  us  all  there  was  of  good  and  bad. 
My  father,  an  enlightened   man,  but  too  fond 
of  pleasure  to  concern  himself  greatly  about 
us,    attempted     occasionally    to    excuse    our 
faults.      '  Let   be,'  was   her   reply,  '  it   is    my 
matter,   not   yours,    to   watch    over    the  chil- 
dren.' "  f    She  was  unquestionably  a  woman  of 
high  principle  and  character,  and  was  admired 
for  this  by  both  Paoli  and  Marbeuf. 

Poor  Laetitia  had  a  hard  time  of  it  with  her 
family.      The    children    were    many.      The    eldest 
daughter,  Marie  Anne,  was  born  on  January  3rd, 

L^TITIA   BUONAPARTE. 
From  a  medallion  by  Spiesse. 

1767  ;  she  was  not  baptised 
till  two  years  later.  Then 
came  the  child,  born  on  the 
7th  January,  1768,  which 
was  probably  Napoleon,  but 
whose  baptismal  register  was 
passed  off  afterwards  as  that 
of  Joseph.  The  second  son 
was  born  on  August  15,1 769 ; 
Lucien  was  born  on  the  21st 
March,  1775  ;  another  Marie 
Anne,  as  the  first  had  died, 


THE    FAMILY   BONAPARTE. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet.  J 


*  It  is  with  repugnance  that  I  allude  to  the  insinuation  that  Napoleon  was  the  son  of  an  illicit  amour 
between  the  Comte  de  Marbeuf  and  the  worthy  Laetitia  Buonaparte.  The  dates  are  sufficient  to  refute 
such  a  calumny.  f  Antommarchi,  Derniers  Moments  de  NapoUon,  Paris,  1825,  i.  308. 

+  The  actual  circumstances  of  the  family  by  no  means  justified  the  appearance  of  wealth  and  dignity 
given  by  artists  under  the  Empire  and  after,  in  such  flattering  illustrations  as  this  and  the  next,  Raffet 
published  this  in  1826.    It  is,  of  course,  wholly  ideal. 


8     THE  LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE 

was  born  on  the  14th  July,  1771  ;  and  as  she  also  died,  a  third  Marie  Anne 
(Elise)  on  the  3rd  January,  1777.  Louis  was  born  on  the  2nd  September,  1778  ;, 
Paula  Maria  (Pauline)  on  the  20th  October,  1780;  Maria  Nunziata  (Caroline) 
on  the  25th  March,  1782  ;  and  Jerome  on  the  15th  November,  1784. 

Camilla  Carbone  was  Napoleon's  wet  nurse,  and  became  vastly  attached  to 
him.  Afterwards,  when  Napoleon  had  the  power,  he  showed  the  warmest 
gratitude  to  her,  and  kindness  to  her  family.  Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  features  in  his  character,  that  he  never  forgot  a  kindness,  nor  failed  to 
assist  those  who  had  been  good  to  him  in  his  childhood,  youth,  and  time  of 
distress  and  poverty.  Camilla  loved  her  nursling  above  her  own  son,  and  would 
not  allow  anyone  to  touch  or  scold  him.  Madame  Junot  represents  Saveria  as 
the  nurse.  This  is  a  mistake.  Saveria  was  a  factotum  of  Mother  Laetitia,  and 
entered  her  service  in  1788.  Consequently  she  came  to  know  him  only  after  his 
return  from  Valence.  She  may  have,  and  probably  had,  seen  him  as  a  child,^ 
running  about  the  streets,  but  she  was  not  his  nurse,  as  has  been  represented. 
Madame  Junot  says  in  her  Memoirs: — 

"  Saveria  told  me  that  Napoleon  was  never  a  pretty  boy,  as  Joseph  had  been  ; 
his  head  always  appeared  too  large  for  his  body,  a  defect  common  to  the 
Bonaparte  family.  When  Napoleon  grew  up,  the  peculiar  charm  of  his 
countenance  lay  in  his  eye,  especially  in  the  mild  expression  it  assumed  in  his 
moments  of  kindness.  His  anger,  to  be  sure,  was  frightful,  and  though  I  am  no 
coward,  I  never  could  look  at  him  in  his  fits  of  rage  without  shuddering. 
Though  his  smile  was  captivating,  yet  the  expression  of  his  mouth  when 
disdainful  or  angry  could  scarcely  be  seen  without  terror.  But  of  that  forehead, 
which  seemed  formed  to  bear  the  crowns  of  a  whole  world  ;  of  those  hands,  of 
which  the  most  coquettish  woman  might  have  been  vain,  and  whose  white  skin 
covered  muscles  of  iron  ;  in  short,  of  all  that  personal  beauty  which  distinguished 
Napoleon  as  a  young  man,  no  traces  were  discernible  in  the  boy.  Saveria  spoke 
truly  when  she  said  that  of  all  the  children  of  Signora  Laetitia,  the  future 
Emperor  was  the  one  for  whom  greatness  was  least  to  be  prognosticated. 
Saveria  liked  me  tolerably  well,  I  make  use  of  this  expression  because  she 
detested  France,  and  the  hatred  or  love  of  a  Corsican  must  not  be  measured 
by  the  ordinary  feelings  of  mankind.  Early  one  morning,  she  came  into  the 
room  where  I  was  sitting  at  the  piano,  playing  a  little  song  which  is  sung  by 
the  goatherds  in  the  mountains  of  Corsica.  Saveria  heard  it,  and  she  stood 
sobbing  behind  my  chair.  I  rallied  her  on  her  sensibility — '  Basta,  basta  ! '  she 
said,  *  good  blood  never  belies  itself ;  and,  my  dear  lady,  it  is  easy  to  see  that 
yours  is  red  and  warm,  and  that  you  have  not  sprung  from  these  dogs  of 
French!'" 

The  feelings,  opinions,  and  prejudices  of  Saveria  were  doubtless  those  of 
Camilla  also,  and  as  such,  must  betaken  into  account;  for  they  were  an  element 
in  the  formation  of  the  .  first  likings,  dislikes,  and  ambitions  of  the  child 
she  reared. 

Napoleon  was  sent  first  to  a  little  dame's  school  with  small  girls,  and  then 
to  a  school  kept  by  the  Abbe  Pecco,  to  whom,  at  S.  Helena,  he  bequeathed 
twenty  thousand  francs.  Joseph,  in  his  Memoirs^  says  that  the  scholars  sat 
ranged  on  forms  opposite  each  other :    that  above  one  set  hung  a  flag  with 


PORTRAIT  OF   MADAME   BUONAPARTE. 
From  the  picture  by  Gerard,  in  the  Versailles  Gallery. 


EARLY   YEARS 


II 


S.  P.  Q.  R.  inscribed  on  it,  above  the  other  one  with  Carthage  written  on  it ;  and 
that  Napoleon  was  very  angry  because  he  was  placed  beneath  the  flag  of  the 
people  conquered  by  the  Romans,  and  gave  Joseph,  who  was  opposite,  no  peace 
till  they  had  shifted  sides. 

The  feelings  of  the  Corsicans  were  in  a  condition  of  irritation  and  resent- 
ment whilst  Napoleon  was  growing  up.  They  felt  humiliated.  They  had 
fought  gallantly  for  freedom,  and  had  shaken  off  the  yoke  that  for  centuries 
had  galled  their  shoulders.  They  had  shown  before  Europe  a  rare  capacity  for 
self-government,  and  now 
they  writhed  under  the  for- 
eign rule  to  which  they 
were  forced  to  bend. 

The  heroism  of  Paoli,  in 
vested  with  all  the  romance 
with  which  Southern  fancy 
loves  to  dress  up  its  idols, 
had  been  the  household  tale 
the  epic  upon  which  the 
imagination  of  the  child 
Napoleon  had  been  nursed, 
and  it  was  attended  by 
muttered  curses  and  vows 
of  revenge  against  the  op- 
pressor. Such  impressions 
produced  on  the  plastic  mind 
of  a  child  are  not  readily 
effaced.  The  rising  ambition 
of  Napoleon  was  kindled  by 
the  glory  that  encircled  the 
form  of  Paoli.  That  his 
father  had  submitted  to  the 
French  estranged  the  boy's 
heart  from  him. 

Charles  Buonaparte,  with 
a  swarming  family,  was  desirous  of  obtaining  a  free  education  for  some  of 
his  children.  The  Comte  de  Marbeuf  offered  a  nomination  for  one  of  his 
boys  to  the  Military  School  at  Brienne,  which  ensured  that  the  education  would 
be  gratuitous.  A  boy,  to  enter,  must  be  under  the  age  of  ten  ;  that  was  an 
indispensable  qualification.  Charles  Buonaparte  had  two  sons  in  1778,  when 
the  offer  was  made :  one.  Napoleon,  had  all  the  fire,  force,  and  intelligence 
which  made  him  suitable  for  a  soldier,  whereas  the  other,  Joseph,  was  mild, 
indolent,  and  inclined  to  adopt  an  ecclesiastical  life. 

Now  we  come  to  the  point  which  throws  doubt  on  the  age  of  Napoleon. 
Did  Charles  Buonaparte  substitute  the  elder  for  the  younger  son,  and  send  to 
Brienne  his  eldest  boy,  Napoleon,  with  a  certificate  that  properly  applied  to  the 


mm 


NAPOLEON   AND    HIS    MOTHER. 
From  an  engraving  of  the  time  of  the  Empire. 


12  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

birth  of  his  second,  Joseph  ?  We  shall  see,  in  the  sequel,  that  the  manufacture 
of  false  certificates  was  a  trick  that  ran  in  the  family,  and  the  copy  of  the  entry 
of  his  birth  and  baptism  as  having  taken  place  at  Ajaccio,  the  former  in  1769^ 
may  have  had  a  like  origin  ;  it  required  nothing  to  be  actually  falsified,  only  to 
h^ve  the  name  of  Joseph  omitted,  supposing  that  Joseph  had  in  addition  the 
odd  name  already  given  to  the  elder  boy.  Owing  to  the  disappearance  of  the 
original  entries,  it  is  not  possible  for  us  to  arrive  at  any  certainty  in  this  matter^ 
but  it  seems  as  though  some  such  bit  of  roguery  had  been  played,  and  that 
afterwards  Napoleon  got  rid  of  the  evidence  which  would  have  convicted  his 
father  of  having  done  what  was  dishonest. 

At  the  same  time  that  Charles  Buonaparte  accepted  the  nomination  to 
Brienne  for  his  son.  Napoleon,  he  obtained  a  situation  for  Marie  Anne  in  the 
Convent  of  Saint  Cyr,  where  young  girls  of  gentle  birth  were  educated  at  the 
royal  charge. 

In  1778,  Charles  Buonaparte  left  Corsica  for  France,  taking  with  him  Joseph,, 
who  was  to  be  put  into  an  ecclesiastical  seminary,  under  M.  de  Marbeuf,  Bishop 
of  Autun,  brother  of  the  Commandant,  with  his  wife's  brother,  Fesch,  who  was 
also  to  be  given  a  free  education  at  the  Seminary  of  Aix,  and  with  Napoleon, 
who  was  to  be  admitted  at  Brienne  a  little  later,  after  having  undergone  some 
necessary  preparation  at  Autun,  for,  as  yet,  he  could  not  speak  a  word  of 
French. 

The  two  boys,  Joseph  and  Napoleon,  were  placed  in  the  school  at  Autun  on 
the  1st  January,  1779,  which  Napoleon  was  to  leave  for  Brienne  at  the  beginning 
of  May.  The  master  of  the  lads'  school  was  the  Abbe  Chardon.  Many  years 
after  he  wrote  his  reminiscences  of  the  lads  he  had  instructed. 


"  Napoleon,"  said  he,  "  brought  to  Autun  a  thoughtful  and  gloomy  character. 
He  had  no  playmate,  and  walked  about  by  himself.  .  .  .  He  had  ability,  and 
learned  quickly.  When  I  gave  him  a  lesson  he  fixed  his  eyes  on  me,  open- 
mouthed  ;  if  I  recapitulated  what  I  had  said,  he  paid  no  further  attention.  If  I 
scolded  him,  he  answered  in  a  cold,  almost  imperious  tone,  '  Sir,  I  know  it'  He 
was  only  three  months  with  me,  .  .  .  and  learned  sufficient  French  to  be  able  to 
converse  freely,  and  make  little  themes  and  translations.  .  .  .  Joseph  had  also 
abilities.  Notwithstanding  his  inertness  for  study,  he  quickly  acquired  French. 
.  .  .  He  was  as  amiable  and  good  as  his  brother  was  imperious.  Joseph's  char- 
acter was  gentle,  engaging,  grateful ;  he  loved  his  comrades,  and  protected 
those  who  were  being  teased  by  others.  In  him  I  never  saw  any  germs  of 
ambition. 

"One  day,"  says  the  Abbe,  "Napoleon's  comrades  said  that  the  Corsicans  were 
a  set  of  cowards.  Napoleon  flashed  out  of  that  mixture  of  phlegm  and  cold  that 
lies  at  the  base  of  his  character,  and  replied,  that  had  there  been  only  four  to  one, 
Corsica  would  never  have  succumbed,  but  actually  they  were  matched  ten  to 
one."  Then  the  Abbe  said,  to  pacify  the  boy,  "  Well,  you  had  a  good 
general,  Paoli."  Napoleon  sulkily  replied, "  Yes,  sir,  and  I  would  like  to  resemble 
him."  * 

*  Jung,  Bojiaparte  et  son  Temps,  1769-99,  Paris,  1880,  i.  70;  COSTON,  Biographie  des  premieres 
Annies  de  Napoleon  Bonaparte y  Paris,   1840,  i.  20. 


EARLY   YEARS  13 

In  the  school  at  Autun,  Napoleon  remained,  according  to  its  still  extant 
registers,  till  the  12th  May,  1779. 

"When  he  left  me,"  says  Joseph,  "I  shed  floods  of  tears;  he  dropped 
but  one  tear,  and  tried  to  conceal  it.  The  Abbe  Simon  remarked  to  me 
thereon,  '  There  was  more  of  sorrow  at  separation  in  his  one  tear  than  in 
all  yours.'" 


II 
BRIENNE 

(May  19,  1779— October  305  1784) 

"^TAPOLEON  was  at  once  admitted  into  the  Military  College,  Brienne, 
-*■  ^  19th  May,  1779.  This  was  of  recent  erection,  and  was  under  the  super- 
intendence of  the  Missions  of  the  Order  of  S.  Benedict,  and  consisted  of  a 
hundred  and  twenty  pupils,  one  half  of  whom  were  received  free  of  charge ;  the 
others  paid  for  their  schooling  700  livres  per  annum.  The  free  scholars  were 
supported  by  a  lottery.  The  pupils  remained  in  the  school  to  the  age  of  sixteen, 
when  they  were  passed  on  to  a  school  of  higher  grade. 

In  his  class  Bonaparte  showed  the  same  intelligence  and  the  same  defects  of 
character  as  at  Autun.  A  foreigner  among  a  number  of  boys  of  tastes  very 
different  from  his  own,  settling  themselves  into  cliques  according  to  their  social 
position,  and  the  amount  of  pocket-money  they  had  to  spend,  he  felt  his  loneli- 
ness, and  at  once  resumed  his  habits  of  solitude,  almost  of  savagery.  Without 
friends,  without  money,  far  from  home — farther  than  when  at  Autun,  for  there 
he  had  his  brother  at  his  side,  and  he  could  look  in  the  face  of  the  old  Bishop 
and  retrace  the  features  of  his  kind  friend,  Count  Marbeuf — the  boy  was  thrown 
in  on  himself,  on  his  dreams  of  the  future,  and  his  remembrances  of  the  past. 

The  monks,  teachers  in  this  school,  were  little  capable  of  arousing  the  minds 
of  their  pupils  to  activity ;  their  methods  were  antiquated,  their  knowledge 
superficial.  Not  one  of  them  seems  to  have  possessed  the  faculty  of  striking 
fire  out  of  these  young  intelligences.  One  might  have  thought  that  at  least 
they  would  have  grounded  them  in  the  Christian  faith  ;  but,  if  we  may  judge  by 
Napoleon's  knowledge  of  the  rudiments,  they  had  not  even  this  faculty. 

The  appearance  of  the  young  Corsican  in  the  Academy  was  too  remarkable 
not  to  attract  the  attention  of  both  companions  and  teachers.  He  spoke  French 
very  badly,  pronouncing  c  like  g,  and  his  spelling  was  execrable.  He  made 
friends  with  none,  and  was  ridiculed  for  his  peculiarities — his  big  head,  his  small 
size,  his  inordinate  leanness,  his  grammatical  blunders,  and  his  bad  pronuncia- 
tion. His  name  was  foreign  to  French  ears,  and  was  pronounced  by  his  school- 
fellows Na-poil-o-ne,  which  they  speedily  converted  into  the  nickname  "  La 
paille  au  nez,"  appropriate  to  the  disdainful  manner  in  which  he  held  up  his 
nose,  as  though  balancing  thereon  a  straw.  Most  sensitive  was  he  to  any  asper- 
sion cast  on  his  native  isle,  and  on  Paoli,  his  hero.     Bourrienne  says : — 


BRIENNE 


15 


"Generally  speaking,  Bonaparte  was  not  much  liked  by  his  comrades  at 
Brienne.  He  was  not  social  with  them,  and  rarely  took  part  in  their  amuse- 
ments. His  country's  recent  submission  to  France  always  caused  in  his  mind  a 
painful  feeling,  which  estranged  him  from  his  schoolfellows.  I,  however,  was 
almost  his  constant  companion.  During  play-hours  he  used  to  withdraw  to  the 
library,  where  he  read  with  deep  interest  the  works  of  history,  particularly 
Polybius  and  Plutarch.  He  was  fond  also  of  Arrian,  but  did  not  care  much  for 
Quintus  Curtius.  I  often 
went  off  to  play  with  my 
comrades,  and  left  him  by 
himself  in  the  library. 

"  The  temper  of  the  young 
Corsican  was  not  improved 
by  the  teasing  he  frequently 
experienced  from  his  com- 
rades, who  were  fond  of  ridi- 
culing him  about  his  Chris- 
tian name  Napoleon,  and  his 
country.  He  often  said  to 
me,  *  I  will  do  these  French 
all  the  mischief  I  can.' " 


CONTEMPORARY   CRAYON    PORTRAIT   OF   BONAPARTE. 
By  one  of  his  fellow-pupils.* 


On  the  5th  of  April,  1780, 
Napoleon  wrote  to  his  father  : 

"  If  you  or  my  protectors 
do  not  furnish  me  with  the 
means  of  supporting  myself 
more  honourably  in  the  house 
where  I  am,  recall  me  on  the 
spot.  I  am  tired  of  making  a 
display  of  my  poverty,  and  of 
seeing  it  provoke  the  smiles 
of  insolent  scholars,  who  are 
in  nothing  my  betters  but  in 
having  more  money ;  there 
is  not  one  of  them  who  is  not 
far  below  the  noble  sentiments  that  animate  me.  What !  is  your  son,  sir,  to- 
be  for  ever  the  butt  of  certain  louts,  who,  proud  of  the  dainties  they  afford 
themselves,  insult  with  their  sneers  the  privations  I  endure  ?  No,  my  father, 
no.  If  fortune  refuse  to  ameliorate  my  lot,  snatch  me  away  from  Brienne 
and  make,  if  must  be,  a  mechanic  of  me." 

There  is  something  very  painful  in  this  cry  of  wounded  pride  addressed  to  a 
negligent  father.  One  can  see  the  simmering  of  intense  resentment  against 
such  as  were  better  off  than  himself. 

As  may  well  be  understood,  this  singular  mode  of  life  and  his  reserved 
character  displeased  his  masters  ;  and  they  attempted  to  ridicule  him  out  of  it, 
but  in  vain.  The  reprimands  or  irony  of  his  superiors  he  received  in  con- 
temptuous silence.  No  punishment  availed.  He  remained  stubborn  in  follow- 
ing his  own  devices,  and  regardless  of  the  opinions  of  others.     Even  when  his 

*  This  interesting  sketch  is  the  first  portrait  from  life  taken  of  Napoleon.  On  it  is  written  **  Mio  car 
aniico  Buonaparte^  Pojitorminiy  178^^  Tournone. "     It  is  now  in  the  possession  of  M.  de  Beaudricourt. 


i6 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


comrades  degraded  him  from  his  position  in  the  cadet  corps  and  deprived  him 
of  his  distinctions,  as  unworthy  to  command  a  battalion,  he  showed  stoHd  indif- 
ference; at  last  those  who  had  so  degraded  him  regretted  the  slight  put  on 
him,  and  restored  the  honours  they  had  taken  from  him. 

Thenceforth  Napoleon  retired  more  completely  into  his  garden,  to  his  books, 
and  brooded  over  the  wrongs  of  Corsica,  and  of  himself  Only  when  winter 
frosts  and  snows  drove  him  from  this  retreat  did  he  associate  with  his  fellows  in 
the  great  play-room;  and  then,  all  at  once,  devised  a  means  of  amusement  suit- 


WINTER   GAMES   AT   BRIENNE. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Horace  Vernet. 

able  to  their  position  as  cadets  in  a  military  school,  and  full  of  entertainment. 
He  induced  his  comrades  to  construct  a  citadel  of  snow,  and  he  divided  them 
into  a  company  that  should  defend  the  fortress,  and  another  that  should  besiege 
it.  Napoleon  himself  conducted  the  attack  on  one  day  and  the  defence  on 
another.  But  as  soon  as  winter  was  over,  he  retreated  again  within  his  latticed 
enclosure,  from  which  no  inducement  could  draw  him  forth. 

The  origin  of  the  young  Corsican  was  a  matter  of  jest  among  the  cadets, 
who  belonged  to  the  best  French  families.  One  day  an  insolent  youth  threw  in 
his  face — "Your  father  is  a  contemptible  sergeant."  He  was  answered  by  a 
challenge,  for  delivering  which  Bonaparte  was  shut  up  in  the  school  prison. 
Thence  he  wrote  to  his  protector,  Marbeuf,  and  entreated  his  interference. 


BRIENNE 


17 


"  Sir, — "  he  wrote,  "  L  shall  never  cure  myself  of  my  impetuosity,  all  the  more 
dangerous  because  I  believe  the  motive  sacred.  No  matter  what  interest  com- 
mands, I  shall  never  have  the  strength  of  mind  to  see  a  man  of  honour — my 
father,  my  respectable  father — dragged  in  the  mud !  On  this  matter,  sir,  I  shall 
always  feel  too  deeply  to  confine  myself  to  complaining  to  my  superiors;  I  shall 
always  remain  persuaded  that  a  good  son  Ought  to  avenge  such  an  outrage." 

M.  de  Marbeuf  interfered,  and 
Bonaparte  was  released. 

But  the  most  characteristic  letter 
that  has  been  preserved,  belonging  to 
this  period, is  one  addressed  to  his  uncle 
Fesch,  dated  the  15th  June,  1784. 

At  school,  Napoleon  occupied  and 
amused  himself  with  writing  a  History 
of  Corsica,  but  it  was  a  mere  boyish 
exercise,  as  he  lacked  the  proper 
material  for  such  a  work ;  it  served, 
however,  as  a  vent  by  which  his  patri- 
otic passion  riiight  relieve  itself 

Frederic  Masson  has  some  very 
true  wOrds  to  speak  concerning  this 
period,  in  its  effects  on  the  formation 
of  Napoleon's  character.  After  noticing 
his  ardent  patriotism,  he  goes  on  to 
say : — 

"  And  if  this  love  of  his  country 
furnish  an  occasion  for  persecution  and 
a  matter  for  derision,  especially  if  all 
that  recalls  home  in  a  child  be  laid 
hold  of  as  a  pretext  for  ridicule^ — his  ways 


BONAPARTE    AT  '  BRIENZ&* 
From  a  lithograph  by  Cbarlet.j: 


his  appearance,  his  accent ;  if 
everything  combines  in  this  school-prison  to  wound  his  sensibility,  to  revolt 
his  tastes,  to  torture  that  southern  bodily  frame,  transported  a  hundred  leagues 
to  the  north,  to  a  climate  both  cold  and  damp ;  if,  along  with  all  this,  there  be 
within  a  proud  soul  which  repels  pity,  and  has  no  intelligible  words  in  which 
to  express  its  sufferings,  what  wonder  if  this  child  retires  into  himself,  and  lives 
only  in  thought  and  dream,  refuses  to  mingle  in  the  games  of  his  comrades, 
becomes  absorbed  in  solitary  labour,  and  rejects  even  the  directions  of  the 
professors,  regarding  them  with  a  hostile  eye  ? " 

And  yet,  with  that  ever-present,  never-effaced  kindness  which  sweetened  the 
nature  of  Bonaparte,  he  never  forgot  his  old  teachers  and  comrades  at  Brienne 
when  he  was  able  to  do  them  a  service.  Not  one  of  them,  in  after  years, 
appealed  to  him  without  being  received  with  open  arms,  and  being  generously 
granted  a  situation  with  a  good  income  attached  to  it.  The  cure  who  gave  him 
his  first  Communion,  his  writing  master,  the  schoolfellows  who  teased  him,  even 
the  poor  little  orphaned  daughters  of  Madame  de  Lomenie,  bereaved  of  their 
mother  on  the  scaffold — merely  because  they  hailed  from  Brienne,  he  thought 
of,  he  provided  for  them  all. 


i8  THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

In  the  five  years  during  which  Napoleon  was  in  the  military  academy  at 
Brienne,  where  he  received  his  education  at  the  King's  cost,  his  mind  went 
through  great  development,  and  his  character  assumed  a  certain  complexion 
which  never  was  wholly  effaced. 

He  had  begun,  as  quite  a  child,  to  contend  against  hostile  elements,  and  to 
suffer  the  galling  sense  of  slight  from  those  immeasurably  his  inferiors  in  brain 
power,  because  of  the  accidents  of  his  birth  and  the  straitness  of  his  means. 
His  unbounded  self-pride  was  wounded,  and  his  heart  brimmed  with  bitterness 
against,  and  contempt  for,  mankind.  Those  with  whom  he  was  associated,  and 
who  flaunted  their  birth  or  their  wealth,  were  poor  creatures,  popinjays,  with 
whom  it  was  not  worth  his  while  to  contend. 

His  inner  thoughts  and  ambitions  were  all  directed  towards  his  home.  That 
was  to  be  the  field  on  which  his  energies,  his  abilities,  were  to  come  into  play. 
The  patriotic  heroes  of  the  past,  and  Paoli,  filled  his  imagination  with  an  ardent 
longing  to  follow  in  their  footsteps,  and  to  achieve  that  which  they  had 
attempted,  and  had  failed  in  effecting. 

It  was  to  this  end  that  he  took  it  into  his  head  to  enter  the  navy.  It  was  his 
desire  to  equip  himself  for  the  marine  service  at  Toulon.  His  smallness  of  size 
favoured  his  taking  service  in  the  fleet  rather  than  in  the  army.  He  was  slim, 
short  of  stature,  of  a  yellowish-green  complexion,  and  his  movements  were 
clumsy. 

"  When  at  Brienne,"  says  Bourrienne,  "  Bonaparte  was  remarkable  for  the 
dark  colour  of  his  complexion — which  subsequently  the  climate  of  France 
somewhat  changed,  and  for  his  piercing  and  scrutinising  glance." 

He  was  very  healthy,  and  was  conscious  of  a  sense  of  enjoyment  of  health 
and  robustness  of  constitution. 

That  the  treatment  of  his  fellow-students  soured  him  was  due  in  a  measure 
to  himself.  There  was  in  him  no  frankness,  no  boyish  generosity,  such  as 
engages  the  young.  Our  fellow-men,  after  all,  are  very  much  in  their  treatment 
of  us  what  we  are  towards  them,  and  the  boyish  nature  is  naturally  liberal  and 
kindly,  and  his  comrades  would  readily  have  forgiven  his  poverty  and  broken 
French,  had  he  received  their  banter  good-humouredly.  But,  says  Bourrienne,. 
"  His  conversation  always  bore  the  tinge  of  ill-humour,  and  he  was  certainly 
unamiable." 

Though  best  in  mathematics,  he  did  not  go  far  in  the  study.  As  Carnot 
informed  Lord  Brougham,  "  Bonaparte  etait  un  peu  mathematicien  en  sa  qualite 
d'artilleur,  mais  il  n'avait  pas  approfondi  les  sciences."  * 

He  left  Brienne,  having  acquired  something  better  than  mathematics.  As  he 
said  of  himself  at  S.  Helena,  "  As  for  me,  Brienne  is  my  native  home.  It  was 
there  that  I  felt  the  first  impressions  of  being  a  man." 

And  he  repaid  the  poor  hospitality  which  Brienne  gave  him  in  his  youth  ; 
for  when  he  drew  up  his  will  in  S.  Helena,  he  bequeathed  to  the  town  a  million 
francs. 

*  Memoirs  sur  Carnot^  Paris,  1869,  ii.  392. 


Ill 

THE    MILITARY  SCHOOL,  PARIS 

(October  30,  1784— October  30,  1785) 

AT  the  end  of  October,  1784*  Napoleon  arrived  in  Paris,  there  to  continue 
^  ^  his  studies  in  the  newly  reorganised  Military  School.  He  had  left 
Brienne  on  the  14th  October,  but  he  did  not  get  admitted  to  the  school  till 
the  30th.  In  Paris  the  conditions  that  had  been  adverse  in  the  preparatory 
establishment  were  aggravated  tenfold.  The  Military  Schools  had  caused  the 
Minister,  the  Comte  de  S.  Germain,  much  trouble ;  the  youths  were  arrogant, 
selfish,  and  vicious.  In  their  inordinate  self-esteem,  they  made  association 
with  them  intolerable  to  boys  issuing  from  the  middle  or  lower  class  of  gentry. 
The  schools  had  been  entirely  reshaped,  but  the  result  had  not  proved  satis- 
factory, and  the  pupils,  when  they  passed  into  their  regiments,  carried  with 
them  their  pretensions  and  insolence.  It  was  not  possible  to  arrest  the  evil  by 
any  reorganisation  of  schools,  when  the  root  lay  in  the  social  prejudices  of  the 
homes  whence  the  pupils  issued. 

There  is  something  infinitely  piteous  in  the  aspect  of  this  large-brained 
imaginative  boy,  just  beginning  to  feel  the  expansion  of  his  genius,  cooped  up 
among  a  horde  of  young  aristocrats  and  wealthy  savages,  without  nobility 
of  soul,  stunted  intellectually  by  the  prejudices  of  their  caste,  and  void  of 
Christian  generosity.  S.  Theresa  once  said  that  her  idea  of  Hell  was  looking 
throughout  eternity  at  a  blank  wall.  The  dulness,  the  monotony  of  the  out- 
look drove  the  interests  inward,  where  they  preyed  on  one  another.  Napoleon 
was  thus  set  round — walled  in  with  stupidity  and  inordinate  class  vanities. 
He  had  not  the  power  to  break  out,  and  consequently  suffered  tortures.  What 
are  the  agonies  that  the  Chinese  girl  has  to  endure  when  her  feet  are  tied  up, 
and  made  to  grow  distorted,  toe  into  toe,  and  the  bones  into  hideous  distortion  ? 
In  her  pain,  unquestionably  she  is  terrible  to  her  sisters  ;  and  if  we  find 
Napoleon  disagreeable,  captious,  surly,  at  this  period  of  his  life,  it  was  due 
to  his  brain  being  thus  compressed.  In  a  proper  sphere,  where  space  had 
been  given  him  for  the  healthy  development  of  his  powers,  he  would  have 
been  sweet  and  gracious,  but  that  he  could  not  be  under  the  untoward  circum- 
stances that  surrounded  him. 

*  It  is  usually  asserted  that  he  arrived  in  Paris  on  the  19th  October.  In  his  Epoques  de  ma  Vie  he 
writes,  "  Parti  pour  I'ecole  de  Paris  le  30  Octobre,  1784."    See  also  Masson,  Napoleon  Inconnu^  i.  p.  87. 

19 


20  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Bonaparte  was  a  free  scholar,  and  those  whose  parents  paid  for  their  educa- 
tion looked  down  on  the  boursiers.  He  was  also  very  short  of  funds.  His 
father,  still  struggling  to  recover  the  Odone  estate  from  the  Jesuits^  was  in  the 
depth  of  difficulties,  and  to  aggravate  his  distress,  began  to  suffer  from  his 
internal  malady.  To  add  a  climax  to  the  family  embarrassments,  Jerome  was 
born  in  November,  two  months  after  Napoleon  had  come  to  Paris.  In  the 
beginning  of  1785,  Charles  Buonaparte  went  to  Montpellier  to  seek  advice  on 
his  malady  ;  there  he  became  worse  rapidly,  and  died  on  February  24th,  kindly 
attended  to  by  Madame  Permon,  his  wife's  great  friend,  and  mother  of  Laura, 
afterwards  Madame  Junot,  then  Duchess  of  Abrantes,  to  whose  memoirs  we 
owe  so  much.  Charles  Buonaparte,  a  victim  to  the  unscrupulousness  and 
greed  of  the  Jesuits,  had  been  driven  into  antagonism,  not  only  to  this  order, 
but  to  Christianity  itself,  which  it  parodied.  But  when  death  approached,  he 
turned  to  the  ministrations  of  religion.  "  Hitherto,  he  had  been  anything  but 
devout ;  he  had  amused  himself  with  some  anti-religious  poems,  but  now  he 
could  not  find  priests  enough  in  Montpellier  to  satisfy  him."  ^ 

The  blow  to  the  family  was  terrible.  It  at  once  ruined  all  Joseph's  pros- 
pects, and  he  returned  from  his  school  at  Aix  with  Uncle  Fesch,  and  rejoined 
his  mother.  Lucien  was  now  at  Brienne,  and  Madame  Laetitia,  with  hardly 
any  means  at  her  disposal,  had  four  children  to  support ;  Louis,  Pauline, 
Caroline,  and  Jerome. 

-  We  have  not  many  authorities  to  which  to  look  for  an  account  of  Napoleon 
during  this  Parisian  stage  of  his  career ;  indeed,  we  have  but  one,  and  that  one 
is  open  to  grave  objection*  Madame  Junot  was  at  this  period  quite  a  child ; 
moreover,  it  is  not  possible  to  reconcile  dates  so  as  to  allow  for  her  knowledge 
of  Napoleon  in  Paris  at  this  period.  It  was  in  the  house  of  Madame,  her 
mother,  that  Charles  Buonaparte  died,  on  February  24th,  1785.  Mme.  Junot 
says  that  Napoleon  had  been  a  year  at  school  before  she  and  her  mother  had 
arrived  in  Paris.  Consequently,  it  can  hardly  have  been  much  before  Septem- 
ber, 1785,  that  the  Permons  arrived  in  the  capital,  and  Napoleon  left  Paris  on 
the  30th  of  the  next  month.  According  to  the  lively  writer  of  the  Memoires, 
Bonaparte  frequently  visited  her  mother,  and  went  with  her  to  see  his  sister  at 
Saint  Cyr,  and  he  spent  a  week  in  their  house. 

Mme.  Junot's  account  is  so  interesting  and  so  obviously  a  genuine  remi- 
niscence, that  part  of  it  shall  be  quoted : — 

"  My  mother's  first  care  on  arriving  in  Paris  was  to  inquire  after  Napoleon 
Bonaparte.  He  was  at  that  time  in  the  Military  School  of  Paris,  haying  quitted 
Brienne  in  the  September  of  the  preceding  year.  My  uncle,  Demetrius,  had  met 
him  just  after  he  alighted  from  the  coach  which  brought  him  to  town  ;  '  and 
truly,'  said  my  uncle,  '  he  had  all  the  appearance  of  a  raw  importation.  I  met 
him  in  the  Palais  Royal,  where  he  was  gaping  and  staring  at  everything  he  saw. 

*  Memorial,  ed.  London,  1823,  i.  118  ;  Antommarchi,  i.  259.  On  the  other  hand,  Las  Cases  says, 
•**  At  the  moment  of  death  he  was  angered  against  Fesch,  who,  already  a  priest,  had  come  in  surplice 
:and  stole  to  assist  him  in  his  last  moments.  He  entreated  him  to  suffer  him  to  die  in  peace."  But  he 
had  as  confessor,  the  Abbe  Pradier,  and  received  the  last  sacraments  from  the  Abbe  Coustou,  curate  of 
5.  Denis,  at  Montpellier. 


THE    MILITARY   SCHOOL,    PARIS  21 

He  would  have  been  an  excellent  subject  for  sharpers,  if  he  had  had  anything 
worth  taking.'  My  uncle  invited  him  to  dine  at  his  house  ;  for  though  he  was 
a  bachelor,  he  did  not  choose  to  dine  at  a  coffee-house.  He  told  my  rnother  that 
Napoleon  was  very  morose.  '  I  fear,'  added  he,  '  that  this  young  man  has  more 
self-conceit  than  is  suitable  to  his  condition.  When  he  dined  with  me,  he  began  to 
declaim  violently  against  the  luxury  of  the  young  men  of  the  Military  School' 

"  A  few  days  afterwards  my  mother  saw  Napoleon,  and  then  his  irritability 
was  at  its  height.  He  would  scarcely  bear  any  observation,  even  if  made  in  his 
favour,  and  I  am  convinced  that  it  is  to  this  incontrollable  irritability  that  he 
owed  his  reputation  of  having  been  ill-tempered  in  his  boyhood,  and  splenetic 
in  his  youth.  My  father,  who  was  acquainted  with  almost  all  the  heads  of  the 
military  school,  obtained  leave  for  him  sometimes  to  come  out  for  recreation. 
On  account  of  an  accident  (a  sprain,  if  I  recollect  right),  Napoleon  spent  once  a 
whole  week  at  our  house.  To  this  day,  whenever  I  pass  the  Quai  Conti,  I  can- 
not help  looking  up  at  a  garret-window  at  the  left  angle  of  the  house,  on  the 
third  floor.  That  was  Napoleon's  chamber  when  he  paid  us  a  visit,  and  a  neat 
little  room  it  was.  My  brother  used  to  occupy  the  one  next  to  it.  The  two 
young  men  were  nearly  of  the  same  age  ;  my  brother  perhaps  had  the  advan- 
tage of  a  year  or  fifteen  months.  My  mother  had  recommended  him  to  cultivate 
the  friendship  of  young  Bonaparte  ;  but  my  brother  complained  how  unpleasant 
it  was  to  find  only  cold  politeness  where  he  expected  affection.  This  repellent 
conduct  on  the  part  of  Napoleon  was  most  offensive,  and  must  have  been 
sensibly  felt  by  my  brother,  who  was  not  only  remarkable  for  the  mildness  of 
his  temper  and  the  amenity  and  grace  of  his  manner,  but  whose  society  was 
courted  in  the  most  distinguished  circles  of  Paris  on  account  of  his  talents.  He 
perceived  in  Bonaparte  a  kind  of  acerbity  and  bitter  irony,  of  which  he  long 
endeavoured  to  discover  the  cause.  '  I  believe,'  said  Albert  one  day  to  my 
mother, '  that  the  poor  young  man  feels  keenly  his  dependent  situation.'  '  But,' 
exclaimed  my  mother,  *  his  situation  is  not  dependent ;  and  I  trust  you  have  not 
made  him  feel  that  he  is  not  quite  at  home  while  he  stays  here.' 

"  'Albert  is  wrong  in  this  matter,'  said  my  father,  who  happened  to  be  present. 
*  Napoleon  suffers  on  account  of  his  pride,  but  it  is  a  pride  not  to  be  censured. 
He  knows  you  ;  he  knows,  too,  that  your  family  and  his  are,  in  Corsica,  equal 
with  regard  to  fortune.  He  is  the  son  of  Laetitia  Bonaparte,  and  Albert  is 
yours.  I  believe  that  you  are  in  a  measure  related  ;  now  he  cannot  easily 
reconcile  all  this  with  the  difference  in  the  education  he  receives  gratis  in  the 
Military  School,  separated  from  his  family,  and  deprived  of  those  attentions 
which  he  sees  are  lavishly  bestowed  upon  our  children.'  '  But  you  are  describing 
envy,  not  pride,'  replied  my  mother.  '  No,  there  is  a  great  difference  between 
envy  and  the  feelings  by  which  this  young  man  is  disturbed  ;  and  I  fancy  I  know 
the  human  heart  well  enough  to  understand  the  working  of  his.  He  suffers,  and 
perhaps  more  keenly  in  our  house  than  elsewhere.' 

"  I  am  convinced  that  Napoleon  long  retained  the  recollections  of  the  painful 
humiliation  he  had  suffered  at  the  Military  School  of  Paris.  He  certainly  was 
no  favourite  there.  Several  of  the  heads  of  the  establishment,  who  were 
acquainted  with  my  father,  assured  him  that  young  Napoleon  Bonaparte 
possessed  a  temper  which  it  was  not  possible  to  render  sociable.  He  was  dis- 
satisfied with  everything,  and  expressed  his  dissatisfaction  in  a  way  that  could 
not  but  be  disagreeable  to  his  elders,  who  regarded  him  as  an  ill-tempered 
wrong-headed  youth.  His  conduct  accelerated  his  departure  from  the  college : 
his  removal  was  unanimously  urged.  He  obtained  a  sub-lieutenancy  in  a  regi- 
ment of  artillery,  and  he  went  to  Grenoble,  Valence,  Auxerre,  &c.,  before  he 
returned  to  Paris. 


22  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

"  Previous  to  his  departure,  he  came  to  pass  some  time  at  our  house.  My 
sister  was  then  at  her  convent,  but  she  frequently  came  home  while  Napoleon 
was  with  us.  I  well  recollect  that  on  the  day  when  he  first  put  on  his  uniform, 
he  was  as  vain  as  young  men  are  on  such  occasions.  There  was  one  part  of  his 
dress  that  presented  a  very  ludicrous  appearance — his  boots.  They  were  so  high 
and  wide  that  his  little  thin  legs  seemed  buried  in  their  amplitude.  Young 
people  are  always  ready  to  observe  anything  ridiculous ;  as  soon  as  my  sister 
and  I  saw  Napoleon  enter  the  drawing-room,  we  burst  into  a  fit  of  laughter.  At 
that  early  age,  as  well  as  in  after  life,  Bonaparte  could  not  relish  a  joke ;  and 
when  now  he  found  himself  the  object  of  mirth,  he  grew  very  angry.  My  sister, 
who  was  some  years  older  than  myself,  told  him  that  since  he  wore  a  sword,  he 
should  be  gallant  to  ladies,  and  instead  of  being  irritated  should  bear  their  jokes 
good-humouredly.  *  You  ! — you  are  nothing  but  a  child — a  little  pensionnairel 
said  Napoleon  in  a  tone  of  contempt.  Cecile,  who  was  twelve  or  thirteen 
years  of  age,  was  highly  indignant  at  being  called  a  child,  and  she  hastily 
resented  the  affront  by  replying  to  Bonaparte,  '  And  you  are  nothing  but  a 
Puss-in-Boots.' 

"  This  excited  a  general  laugh  among  all  present,  except  Napoleon,  whose 
rage  I  will  not  attempt  to  describe.  Though  not  much  accustomed  to  society, 
he  had  sufficient  tact  to  perceive  that  he  had  best  be  silent  when  personalities 
were  introduced,  and  his  adversary  was  a  woman. 

"  Though  deeply  mortified  at  the  unfortunate  nickname  which  my  sister  had 
given  him,  yet  he  affected  to  forget  it;  and  to  prove  that  he  cherished  no 
malice  on  the  subject,  he  got  a  little  toy  made,  and  gave  it  as  a  present  to  me. 
This  toy  consisted  of  a  cat  in  boots,  in  the  character  of  a  footman  running 
before  the  carriage  of  the  Marquis  de  Carabas.  It  was  very  well  made,  and 
must  have  been  rather  expensive  to  him,  considering  his  straitened  finances. 
He  brought  along  with  it  a  pretty  little  edition  of  the  popular  tale  of  '  Puss  in 
Boots,'  which  he  presented  to  my  sister,  begging  her  to  keep  it  as  a  token  of  his 
remembrance.  '  O,  Napoleon,'  said  my  mother,  '  if  you  had  merely  given  the 
toy  to  Loulou,  it  would  have  been  all  very  well  ;  but  the  tale  for  Cecile  shows 
that  you  are  still  offended  with  her.'  He  gave  his  word  to  the  contrary  ;  but  I 
think,  with  my  mother,  that  some  feeling  of  resentment  was  still  rankling 
in  his  mind." 

At  the  Military  College  in  Paris,  Bonaparte  met  and  quarrelled  with 
Philippeaux,  who  was  two  years  older  than  himself,  and  was  also  his  senior  in 
the  school.  A  mutual  antipathy  took  possession  of  their  breasts,  and  the 
sergeant-major  placed  himself  between  them  in  class  to  impose  quiet  on  them, 
but  came  in  for  kicks  from  both,  aimed  under  the  table  at  each  other.  Why 
they  hated  each  other  is  not  known.  It  was  Philippeaux  who  at  Acre  arrested 
Napoleon  in  his  march  through  Syria,  and  forced  him  to  retire.  Had  he  not 
been  carried  off  by  the  plague  two  days  after,  he  would  have  pursued  his  old 
school  adversary,  and  have  possibly  destroyed  his  army,  and  cut  short  his 
career. 

We  can  see  in  Napoleon's  character  at  this  period  an  intensification  of  dis- 
content ;  his  mind  was  less  turned  to  the  emancipation  of  his  country  than  to 
his  own  grievances.  That  he  was  in  a  false  position,  a  poor  lad  put  among  rich 
youths,  made  him  bitter  at  heart  against  those  who  were  prosperous.  Although 
M.  de  Permon  would  not  allow  that  what  soured  his  temper  was  envy,  there  can 
be  little  question  that  such  was  the  passion  that  gnawed  at  his  heart.     Pride 


THE    MILITARY   SCHOOL,    PARIS  23 

there  was,  justifiable,  because  he  was  aware  of  his  abilities  ;  but  a  noble  pride 
that  bore  itself  with  dignity  it  was  not.  Yet  in  his  pain,  and  humiliation,  and 
poverty,  would  it  not  be  expecting  the  heroism  of  a  Christian  to  look  for  other 
conduct?  And  of  Christianity  .the  narrow  and  dull  monks  at  Brienne  had 
taught  him  almost  nothing. 

M.  de  Marbeuf,  his  patron,  was  in  failing  health  ;  Bonaparte  was  a  needy 
subaltern  on  ;^30  a  year,  with  £^  lodging  money,  and  ;^8  as  a  royal  bounty 
accorded  him  as  an  old  pupil  of  Brienne.  In  the  ordinary  course  of  events,  he 
would  become  a  captain  after  fifteen  years'  service,  and  after  another  fifteen 
might  look  to  retire  on  a  modest  pension.  A  poor  prospect  to  one  who  felt  in 
himself  ambition  to  be  a  hero.  In  his  seared  heart,  oppressed  with  the  dulness 
of  the  outlook,  all  the  elements  were  gathered  to  kindle  into  a  conflagration  that 
would  destroy  the  existing  regime,  so  as  to  bare  a  path  black  with  ashes,  over 
which  he  might  make  for  himself  a  career  to  something  great — he  knew 
not  what. 


IV 


THE    ARTILLERY    LIEUTENANT 


(October  30,  1785— September  15,  1786) 


o 


N  October  30th,  1785,  Nappleon  left  Paris  for  his  regiment  of  La  Fere^ 
then  quartered  at  Valence.     When  there,  hejwould  have  to  remain  three 

months  before  receiving  his 
patent  as  Sub-lieutenant  of 
Artillery.  To  reaeb  his  desti- 
nation was  an  expense  he 
could  not  meet,  save  by  walk- 
ing from  Lyons. 

The  prospect  before  the 
young  man  was  not  very 
promising — after  fifteen  years 
to  become  a  captain,  and 
after  fifteen  more  to  retire 
with  the  Cross  of  St.  Louis. 
But  the  present  offered,  at  all 
events,  the  charm  of  novelty. 
He  would  be  his  own  master, 
living  in  his  own  hired  lodg- 
ings, feeding  and  clothing 
himself — all  on  about  £4^ 
in  English  money. 

On  reaching  Valence  he 
looked  out  a  modest  lodging, 
and  found  a  room  in  the  house 
of  an  old  Mademoiselle  Bou^ 
and  he  went  for  his  meals 
to  the  tavern  of  the  "  Three 
Pigeons."      He  subscribed  to  a  library,  and  settled  down  to  his  books. 

It  would  be  hard  to  find  in  France  a  duller  city  than  that  in  which  Napoleon 
was  quartered.  It  lies  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhone,  that  flows  broad  and 
turbid  between  the  arches  of  the  bridge  connecting  it  with  the  village  of  S- 

24 


THE   ARTILLERY   LIEUTENANT. 
From  an  ideal  portrait  by  Philippoteaux. 


THE    ARTILLERY    LIEUTENANT 


25 


Peray,  dominated  by  a  bold  scarp  of  sandstone  cliff  on  which  stands  the  Castle 
of  Crussol. 

The  left  bank,  on  which  lies  Valence,  is  flat  and  uninteresting  ;  the  houses, 
constructed  and  carved  in  sandstone,  are  crumbling  to  decay.  The  cathedral  is 
ancient,  inconsiderable,  and  unfinished.  There  was  but  one  thing  that  could 
attract  the  interest  of  Napoleon  in  this  dreary,  sleepy  place,  a  miniature 
fortress  erected  by  Vauban  on  the  further  bank  of  the  Rhone,  with  bastions, 
curtains,  glacis,  portcullis,  and  that  is  but  a  toy,  which  he  would  look  at,  curl  his 
lip,  and  never  visit  again. 


BONAPARTE   AT    VALENCE. 
F'rom  a  painting  by  F.   Flameng. 


Having  in  Valence  nothing  to  interest  him,  not  inclined  to  be  a  garrison 
officer,  beating  the  pavement  to  kill  time,  to  use  the  expression  employed  to 
Fesch,  he  turned  to  books.  And  in  books  he  found  food  to  kindle  his  discontent 
to  a  flame,  and  excite  him  to  great  actions — of  destruction  first,  before  he  came 
to  construction. 

The  age  was  one  of  political,  religious,  and  social  ferment.  The  writings  of 
Voltaire,  Montesquieu,  the  Encyclopedists,  the  Abbe  Raynal,  and  of  Rousseau, 
were  in  all  hands,  and  republican  opinions  wafted  across  the  Atlantic  on  the 
wings  of  the  western  breeze,  were  inhaled  by  all  lungs,  eager  for  a  regeneration 
of  the  decrepit  old  world.  The  daughters  of  France  longed,  like  those  of 
Pelias,  to  cut  up  their  father,  cast  him  into  the  cauldron  of  revolution,  in  hopes 
of  seeing  him  arise  in  rejuvenescence.     It  was  a  period  of  political  experiments. 


26  THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

For  some  time  those  about  the  Throne  had  seen  that  the  State  was  worm-eaten, 
that  even  if  the  growing  debt  were  wiped  away,  it  would  not  be  possible  to 
stifle  the  discontent  that  spoke  through  a  thousand  mouths.  The  rich,  the 
noble,  the  cultured,  scoffed  at  religion  and  belauded  liberty,  and  jested  over  the 
scandals  that  should  have  made  them  blush.  What  was  bandied  about  at  table 
in  the  salon,  was  carried  by  the  servants  to  the  kitchen,  became  the  one  topic  of 
the  coffee-houses.  The  attempts  at  reform  made  by  Turgot  and  Necker  were 
not  sufficiently  drastic ;  or  were  too  ill-supported  to  postpone  the  day  of 
account ;  or  served  no  other  purpose  than  to  reveal  the  weakness  of  the  props 
that  maintained  the  tottering  edifice.  As  the  day  of  the  dissolution  of  all 
things  drew  nigh,  parties  became  accentuated.  Those  who  would  lose  by 
change  clung  desperately  to  their  privileges  and  benefices.  Those  who  had 
nothing  to  lose,  were  busy  making  pockets  in  which  to  stow  the  plunder  that 
would  soon  be  theirs.  A  few  noble  spirits  saw  that  change  of  a  very  radical 
description  must  ensue,  and  hoped  to  carry  it  through  without  bloodshed,  and 
to  renovate  the  State  without  a  preliminary  stage  of  anarchy. 

The  cloud,  at  first  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  had  spread,  and  the  heavens 
were  black  with  wind  and  rain. 

In  the  heart  of  Napoleon,  in  epitome,  were  gathered^the  general  discontent, 
the  desire  for  change,  envy  and  hatred  of  the  successful,  impatience  to  acquire 
by  force  what  had  belonged  to  others  by  right  of  birth.  Through  a  volcanic 
upheaval  and  a  rending  of  the  social  strata  alone  could  such  hope  be  realised. 

It  was  one  of  the  limitations  of  Napoleon's  genius,  that  it  could  only  find 
scope  on  a  clear  field.  His  mental  force  and  fertility  lay  in  the  planning  and 
executing  of  structures  complete  in  themselves  ;  he  could  not  adapt  what  he 
found,  and  he  could  no  more  carry  out  the  plans  of  another  than  he  could 
entrust  his  own  to  the  execution  of  another.  Had  not  the  conflagration  of  the 
Revolution  cleared  the  ground,  his  genius  would  have  died  within  him,  un- 
developed. 

At  Brienne,  whilst  still  a  child,  Napoleon's  favourite  study  had  been  Caesar's 
Gallic  Wars  and  Plutarch's  Lives.  In  the  pages  of  Caesar  he  had  read  of  the 
great  Gallic  heroes  who  had  succumbed  before  the  invader — Vercingetorix, 
Lucterius,  and  Drappes — and  had  compared  them  with  his  Corsican  heroes — 
Sampiero,  Gaffieri,  and  Paoli.  The  pen  of  Plutarch  had  described  great  men, 
actuated  by  the  noblest  passions,  carving  out  their  destinies  with  their  swords. 
These  were  all  food  for  a  boy's  enthusiastic  and  combustible  imagination.  Now 
that  Napoleon  had  reached  the  threshold  of  manhood,  he  examined  into  the 
causes  of  the  evils  that  abounded,  dug  to  the  roots  of  the  weeds  that  occupied 
the  field  and  smothered  the  good  grain. 

Three  manuscripts  of  Napoleon,  belonging  to  this  period,  have  been  pre- 
served. One,  written  on  the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Paoli,  26th  April,  1786^ 
is  a  rodomontade,  full  of  patriotism,  and  very  youthful  in  style.  Here  is  a 
passage  from  it : — 

"You  modern  effeminates,  who  nearly  all  languish  in  soft  slavery,  these 
heroes  are  too  exalted  above  your  cowardly  souls.     Consider  the  picture  of  the 


THE    ARTILLERY    LIEUTENANT  27 

young  Leonardo,  martyr  to  his  country  and  to  paternal  love.  What  manner  of 
death  closed  thy  heroic  career  in  the  spring  of  thy  years?  A  cord.  Ye 
mountaineers,  who  hath  troubled  your  happiness  ?  Ye  peaceable  and  virtuous 
men  whose  days  flowed  smoothly  in  the  bosom  of  your  country,  what  barbarian 
tyrant  has  destroyed  your  habitations?" —  and  so  on.  A  tirade  against  the 
French  invaders  of  Corsica. 

Another  composition  of  this  period  is  a  refutation  of  one  Antoine  Jacques 
Roustan,  an  evangelical  pastor,  who  had  criticised  the  works  of  Rousseau. 
This  is  dated  "9th  May,  at  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon."  It  is  a  confused, 
abusive,  savage  philippic. 


dixuitj^^ 


SIGNATURE  OF   BONAPARTE   IN    I785. 
'''■Voire  tres  humble  Buonaparte  fils  cadet  gentilhomme  a  lecole  royale  militaire  de  parts.' 

On  the  3rd  of  May,  he  wrote  a  curious  monologue,  of  which  some  paragraphs 
deserve  quotation : — 

"  Always  alone  in  the  midst  of  men,  I  come  home  to  dream  in  solitude,  and 
to  deliver  myself  up  to  my  melancholy  in  all  its  acuteness.  At  the  dawn  of  my 
life  I  had  some  hopes  of  living  long.  For  six  or  seven  years  I  have  been  away 
from  my  country.  What  pleasures  would  I  not  feel  at  the  end  of  four  months, 
if  I  could  see  again  my  compatriots  and  my  kinsfolk !  Judging  by  the  tender 
sensations  produced  by  the  remembrance  of  the  pleasures  of  childhood,  may  I 
not  conclude  that  my  happiness  will  be  complete?  What  madness,  then,  drives 
me  to  seek  self-destruction?  As  one  must  die — why  not  kill  oneself?  If  I  were 
more  than  sixty  years  old,  I  would  respect  the  prejudices  of  my  contemporaries, 
and  wait  in  patience  till  Nature  had  finished  her  course,  but  as  I  begin  to  feel 
misfortunes,  and  that  nothing  pleases  me,  why  should  I  endure  days  void  of 
prosperity  ?  How  cowardly,  vile,  grovelling,  men  are !  What  shall  I  see  when 
I  reach  home  ?  My  compatriots  charged  with  chains,  yet  kissing  the  hand  that 
oppresses  them.  They  are  no  longer  the  brave  Corsicans  whom  a  hero  animated 
by  his  virtues,  foes  to  tyrants,  to  luxury,  to  vile  courtiers.  .  .  .  Frenchmen  !  not 
content  with  having  taken  from  us  that  liberty  we  cherished,  you  have  also 
corrupted  our  morals.  The  picture  of  my  country  as  it  is,  and  my  inability  to 
change  it,  are  a  new  motive  to  make  me  fly  from  an  earth  where  I  am  forced  by 
my  duty  to  praise  those  men  whom  Virtue  bids  me  hate.  When  the  fate  of 
one's  country  is  sealed,  the  good  citizen  should  die. 

"  If  I  had  but  one  man  to  destroy  in  order  to  deliver  my  compatriots,  I 
would  start  to  accomplish  that  work  at  once.  I  would  plunge  the  avenging 
sword  of  my  country,  and  of  violated  laws,  in  the  bosom  of  the  tyrant.  Life  is 
a  burden  to  me,  because  I  can  taste  no  pleasure,  and  all  is  pain  to  me.     It  is  a 


28  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

burden  to  me,  because  the  men  among  whom  I  live,  and  probably  shall  always 
live,  have  manners  as  distinct  from  mine  as  the  brightness  of  the  moon  differs 
from  that  of  the  sun.  I  cannot  accordingly  live  in  the  sole  manner  which  can 
make  life  supportable,  whence  it  is  that  I  feel  disgust  at  everything." 

Here  we  have  the  same  passionate  devotion  to  Corsica,  the  same  hatred  of 
France,  a  craving  after  pleasures  that  are  beyond  his  reach,  vanity,  and  desire  to 
strike  an  attitude  before  his  fellow-citizens  :  strange  phantasmagoria  arising, 
some  of  which  were  to  govern  him  till  he  had  accomplished  more  than  the 
wildest  of  his  dreams  had  pictured.  On  the  20th  September,  the  Comte  de 
Marbeuf,  the  constant  patron  of  Napoleon,  died  at  Bastia,  and  the  family  affairs 
of  the  Bonapartes  assumed  a  gloomy  aspect.  Napoleon's  great-uncle,  Lucien, 
who  had  acted  as  guardian  of  the  family,  had  fallen  dangerously  ill,  and  the 
steward  of  Madame  Laetitia's  little  property  refused  to  pay  the  rents  for  1786. 
In  most  Lives  of  Napoleon,  it  is  asserted  that  he  went  with  his  regiment, 
2 1  St  September,  to  Douai,  but  this  is  impossible,  as  in  his  Epoques  de  ma  Vie 
he  notes,  "Left  Valence  for  my  holiday  at  Ajaccio,  on  the  ist  September, 
1786." 

Just  before  leaving  for  his  home,  to  take  the  holiday  to  which  he  was  entitled, 
he  was  sent  with  his  regiment  to  Lyons  to  quell  a  disturbance  there,  but  this  was 
on  the  1 2th  August,  and  he  cannot  have  remained  long  in  the  place.  Indeed, 
when  the  regiment  arrived,  the  need  for  it  had  ceased.  Lyons  had  returned  to 
quietude.  If  we  wish  to  understand  the  mind  of  Napoleon  when  at  Valence, 
we  cannot  do  better  than  read  the  three  compositions  he  produced  at  this 
period,  and  if  we  desire  to  describe  him  at  this  time,  we  cannot  do  so  more 
concisely  than  in  the  words  of  M.  Masson  :  "  La  Corse  et  Rousseau,  viola  tout  le 
Bonaparte  de  86." 


V 
A    HOLIDAY 

(September  15,  1786— June  i,  1788) 

'VTAPOLEON  had  received  permission  to  return  home  on  furlough,  from 
-^  ^  the  first  day  of  September,  1786,  for  nine  months.  He  reached  home  on 
the  15th  of  the  month.  His  mother  had  not  seen  him  for  seven  years  and  nine 
months.  He  had  left  her  a  child,  he  returned  a  man.  The  fractious,  violent- 
tempered  child  had  become  a  young  officer,  with  a  large  head,  powdered  hair, 
with  a  keen  eye  into  which  fire  leaped  when  the  name  of  Paoli  was  mentioned, 
but  which  melted  into  inexpressible  gentleness  at  the  sight  of  his  mother  and 
brothers  and  sisters,  and  the  delicate  mouth  wreathed  into  the  sweetest  and 
most  winning  of  smiles.  He  spoke  in  short  sentences,  except  when  haranguing, 
and  then  he  involved  himself  in  wonderful  periods  of  bombast  and  extravagant 
sentiment.  He  was  the  first  Corsican  who  had  passed  through  the  Military 
Schools  and  donned  the  King's  livery ;  and  he  strutted  in  self-consciousness 
before  his  former  comrades  who  had  romped  with  him  in  the  streets  and 
played  at  knuckle-bones  on  the  church  steps. 

Joseph  was  without  situation,  Lucien  was  at  Brienne,  but  sick  of  military 
•routine,  and  desiring  to  enter  a  seminary  and  submit  to  the  still  more  severe 
routine  that  would  fit  him  to  become  a  priest.  Elise  (Marianne)  was  at 
school  with  the  nuns  at  S.  Cyr.  Louis  was  nine  years  old.  Pauline,  a  coquettish, 
lively  little  girl,  nearly  seven.  Caroline,  a  tall  girl,  with  a  strong  will  and 
•dogged  temper,  was  five,  and  Jerome,  the  pet  of  the  family,  was  a  child  of 
three. 

Great-uncle  Lucien,  laid  up  with  gout,  could  not  attend  to  the  affairs  of  the 
family,  and  Uncle  Fesch,  the  abbe,  was  the  confidant  of  all  these  little  people,  a 
•good-natured,  irresolute  man  with  very  little  brains.  Under  these  circumstances, 
the  firm  conduct  of  Napoleon  was  necessary ;  all  the  money  concerns  of  the 
family  were  at  sixes  and  sevens,  the  steward  complained  that  rents  were  in 
.arrear,  and  that  the  years  had  been  so  bad  that  there  was  nothing  to  be  raised. 
Mother  Laetitia  did  not  know  how  to  add  up  a  column  in  the  accounts,  and 
Uncle  Lucien  could  not  hobble  out  to  see  whether  the  statements  of  the 
steward  were  true.  Joseph  Fesch  was  so  amiable,  that  he  was  talked  over  by 
anyone  who  took  the  trouble  to  befool  him.  Napoleon  was  somewhat  dis- 
concerted to  find  that  the  Ajaccians  had  lost  their  enthusiasm  for  Paoli,  or  had 

29 


30  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

laid  it  aside,  and  were  disposed  to  reap  what  advantages  they  could  from  the 
French  occupation ;  the  gouty  uncle  alone  in  the  family  retained  his  old 
patriotic  fire,  and,  in  the  furies  of  pain,  stormed  against  the  Gallic  conquerors. 
To  him  Napoleon  went,  and  read  over  the  pages  of  his  Corsican  History — a 
work  which  contained  no  original  material,  was  enriched  by  no  study  of  the 
national  archives,  which  contained  a  ha'porth  of  fact  to  an  intolerable  amount 
of  windy  declamation.  As  to  the  Signora  Laetitia,  she  knew  how  to  keep  him 
in  wholesome  fear  of  herself  To  this  period  belongs  an  extraordinary  story, 
told  by  Napoleon  himself,  extraordinary  only  because  of  the  period  to  which  it 
belongs,  when  he  was,  if  born  as  asserted,  seventeen  years  old.  One  day  he 
and  his  little  sister  Pauline  mimicked  their  grandmother,  who  was  walking 
down  the  street  before  them.  She  turned,  saw  what  they  were  doing,  and  at 
once  went  to  their  mother  and  complained.  Madame  Laetitia  held  strict  views 
as  to  the  respect  due  to  elders,  and  as  Pauline  was  young  and  her  skirts  were 
short,  she  made  short  work  with  her,  and  sent  the  child  tingling  and  crying  to 
bed.  She  then  sought  to  administer  the  same  chastisement  to  her  officer  son. 
But  his  military  accoutrements  and  garments  presented  an  obstacle,  and 
Napoleon  would  not  meet  her  desire  half-way  by  accommodating  himself  to 
receive  the  chastisement. 

So  the  day  passed,  and  the  night,  and  Napoleon,  on  the  morrow,  believed 
the  matter  was  at  an  end,  especially  as  his  mother  made  no  further  allusions  to 
it.  But,  towards  evening,  Signora  Laetitia  addressed  him  :  "  Quick,  Napoleon  ! 
You  are  invited  to  dine  with  the  Governor."  The  young  lieutenant,  delighted, 
ran  upstairs  to  his  room,  and  divested  himself  of  his  everyday  garments.  His 
mother  seized  the  opportunity,  rushed  in,  shut  the  door,  and  administered  the 
deserved  punishment  with  the  flat  of  her  hand.  Napoleon  told  this  story  in 
Elba,  and  it  is  not  possible  to  accommodate  it  to  any  earlier  year. 

His  leave  of  absence  terminated  on  the  i6th  May,  but  he  procured  medical 
certificates  that  he  was  in  a  delicate  condition  of  health,  and  asked  for  a 
prolongation  of  his  furlough,  and  this  was  granted  for  five  months — to  the 
1st  November. 

As  he  was  anxious  to  obtain  some  favour  for  his  mother  from  Government, 
Bonaparte  embarked,  on  September  12th,  1787,  with  the  intention  of  going  to 
Paris,  and  he  reached  the  capital  in  October. 

He  applied  for  a  further  extension  of  his  leave,  and,  without  having 
succeeded  in  gaining  what  he  had  sought  in  Paris,  he  returned  to  Corsica, 
which  he  reached  on  the  first  day  of  the  year  1788,  where  he  found  his 
mother  in  such  difficulties  that  she  could  not  even  keep  a  servant,  and  had  to 
do  everything  in  the  house,  and  for  her  four  children  under  age,  with  her  own 
hands.  Joseph  was  away  at  Pisa.  Napoleon  remained  in  Corsica  till  the 
1st  June,  1788. 

Whilst  at  Ajaccio,  Napoleon  associated  with  the  French  officers  quartered 
there ;  and  one  of  them,  M.  de  Renain,  has  left  an  interesting  notice  of  him  at 
this  period  of  his  life.* 

*  Souvenirs  dhm  Officier  Royaliste^  par  M.  de  R  ,  p.  117. 


A    HOLIDAY  31 

"  In  1788,  M.  Buonaparte,  lately  appointed  lieutenant  of  artillery,  arrived  in 
Corsica  on  his  furlough.  He  was  our  comrade,  and  he  often  dined  with  us,  with 
one  after  another.  He  was  younger  than  myself.  He  entered  the  corps  two 
years  after  me.  I  do  not  recollect  his  personal  appearance  at  all,  still  less  his 
character,  and  his  manner  was  so  dry  and  sententious  for  his  age,  and  for  a 
French  officer,  that  I  never  thought  of  making  a  friend  of  him.  My  knowledge 
was  too  limited  with  regard  to  ancient  and  modern  governments,  for  me  to  be 
able  to  discuss  with  him  such  matters,  which  formed  the  staple  of  his  conversa- 
tion. Moreover,  when  he  dined  with  me  in  my  turn,  which  happened  four  or 
five  times  in  the  year,  I  went  off  after  the  meal  to  the  cafe,  and  left  him  at 
loggerheads  with  one  of  our  captains,  much  more  capable  of  defending  himself 
against  this  doughty  champion  than  myself.  My  comrades,  like  myself,  lost 
patience  with  what  we  considered  ridiculous  stuff  and  pedantry.  Nor  did  we 
concern  ourselves  with  his  dictatorial  tone,  till  one  day,  when  in  the  heat  of 
argument  over  the  rights  of  nations  in  general,  and  his  own  in  particular,  he 
launched  out  with  such  vehemence  that  we  fell  into  amazement,  especially  when 
he  was  speaking  of  the  (Corsican)  States  Assembly,  which  it  was  proposed  to 
convoke,  but  which  M.  de  Barrin  endeavoured  to  delay,  he  broke  out  with  the 
remark  that  it  was  a  surprising  thing  that  M.  de  Barrin  should  dream  of  depriv- 
ing them  of  their  liberty  to  discuss  their  own  affairs,  and  then  in  a  menacing 
tone  he  added,  *  M.  de  Barrin  does  not  know  the  Corsicans.  He  will  come  to 
see  of  what  they  are  capable.*  This  sentiment  thus  escaping  him  gave  us  an 
insight  into  his  mind.  One  of  our  comrades  replied  sharply, '  And  pray,  would 
you  employ  your  sword  against  the  representatives  of  the  King?'  To  this  he 
made  no  answer.  We  parted  with  coolness,  and  this  was  the  last  time  he  did 
me  the  honour  of  dining  with  me." 

It  was  high  time  for  him  to  return  to  his  regiment.  He  had  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  his  brother  Joseph,  who  returned  from  Italy,  and  on  the  ist  June 
Napoleon  departed  for  Auxonne,  where  his  regiment  had  been  in  garrison  since 
the  preceding  December. 


VI 

AUXONNE 

(June,  1788— September  15,  1789) 

AMONG  the  papers  of  Napoleon  relating  to  the  period  of  his  holiday  in 
-^^  Corsica,  is  a  scheme,  drawn  up  with  his  own  hand,  for  obtaining  prolonga- 
tion of  furlough.  It  is  entitled,  "The  manner  in  which  to  get  a  holiday,"  and 
begins:— 

"  When  one  is  enjoying  one's  vacation,  and  desires  to  obtain  a  summer 
extension,  on  the  plea  of  health,  it  is  necessary  to  get  a  doctor  and  a  surgeon  to 
draw  tip  some  sort  of  certificate,  before  the  time  designed,  to  state  that  your 
health  does  not  admit  of  your  rejoining  your  regiment.  Remember  that  this 
must  be  on  stamped  paper,  and  that  it  must  be  countersigned  by  the  judge  and 
the  commandant  of  the  place  ;  and  then  you  must  address  the  Minister  of  War 
in  the  following  manner,".  &c.  / 

As  the  sequel  will  show,  there  never  seems  to  have  been  any  difficulty  in 
Corsica  to  obtain  any  sort  of  certificate  that  was  desired.  The  Buonaparte 
family  had  relatives  in  office  and  in  medicine  ever  willing  to  oblige  a  kinsman. 

At  Auxonne,  when  Napoleon  rejoined  his  regiment  after  a  vacation  of  one 
year,  eight  months  and  a  half,  he  was  lodged  in  the  barracks.  His  regiment 
was  commanded  by  Du  Teil,  who  played  an  important  part  in  the  military  life 
of  Napoleon,  and  whom  he  remembered  in  his  will. 

At  Auxonne  he  schemed  a  work  on  "  Royal  Authority,"  and  of  this  the 
proposed  programme  was  as  follows  : — 

"  The  work  will  open  with  some  general  ideas  on  the  origin  and  growth  of 
the  right  of  King  in  the  minds  of  men.  Military  government  favours  it.  The 
work  will  then  enter  into  details  on  the  usurped  authority  enjoyed  by  the  Kings 
in  the  twelve  realms  of  Europe.  There  are  very  few  Kings  who  do  not  deserve 
to  be  dethroned." 

When  we  consider  that  this  was  the  undertaking  of  a  young  officer  of 
nineteen,  who  had  been  brought  up,  fed,  and  clothed  at  the  King's  expense,  was 
serving  in  a  royal  regiment,  and  under  oath  of  allegiance  to  him — that,  more- 
over, at  this  very  time,  his  brother  Lucien  and  his  sister  Marianne  were  being 
maintained  by  the  royal  bounty,  and  that  his  mother  was  applying  for.^the  same 
privileges  for  her  son  Louis — the  thesis  implies  a  considerable  amount  of  moral 

32 


AUXONNE  33 

blindness  and  ingratitude.     However,  this  work  was  never  carried  out  to  com- 
pletion, it  remained  in  sketch  only. 

Now  was  the  eventful  moment  of  the  meeting  of  the  States  General,  of  the 
oath  taken  in  the  Tennis  Court  at  Versailles,  rapidly  followed  by  the  union  of 
the  nobility  and  the  clergy  with  the  Tiers  Etat,  the  taking  of  the  Bastille,  the 
flight  of  the  Princes,  the  nomination  of  Bailly  to  be  Mayor  of  Paris,  the  forma- 
tion of  the  National  Guard  under  Lafayette,  the  adoption  of  the  Tricolor,  and 
the  famous  night  of  the  4th  August,  the  Saint-Barthelemy  des  privileges.  All 
these  events  succeeded  each  other  in  less  than  six  weeks. 

What  was  taking  place  in  Paris  created  great  excitement  in  Auxonne. 
Napoleon  did  not  associate  with  his  fellow-oflicers,  but  with  citizens  opposed  to 
the  Court,  and  desirous  of  putting  an  end  to  all  privilege,  and  with  them  poured 
forth  the  resentment  of  his  soul,  bred  by  the  slights  to  which  he  had  been 
subjected.  He  became  ill.  He  wrote  to  his  mother  :  "  I  have  here  no  other 
resource  save  work.  I  dress  myself  only  once  a  week,  and  since  I  was  ill  I  sleep 
very  little.  This  is  really  dreadful.  I  go  to  bed  at  ten  only,  and  am  up  again  at 
four  in  the  morning.  I  take  but  one  meal  a  day — at  three.  That  suits  my 
health."  Nevertheless,  what  with  the  excitement  into  which  he  was  thrown,  and 
his  low  diet,  he  had  a  relapse  of  low  fever,  and  he  applied  for  another  leave  of 
absence,  which  was  granted  him,  from  the  15th  of  September,  1789,  to  the  15th 
March,  1790.  Before  he  left,  however,  disturbances  broke  out  at  Auxonne,  both 
in  the  town  among  the  rabble,  and  among  the  garrison. 

The  mob  rose  on  July  19th  and  20th,  and  wrecked  the  houses  of  the  tax- 
gatherers,  broke  down  the  toll-bars  and  destroyed  the  toll-houses.  The  strong- 
boxes of  the  tax-gatherers  were  plundered  and  their  account  books  torn  up. 
The  military  looked  on  with  indifference  or  secret  sympathy.  On  the  i6th 
August,  insubordination  showed  itself  in  the  regiment  of  La  Fere  itself.  The 
soldiers  surrounded  the  house  of  the  Colonel,  and  demanded  the  payment  into 
their  own  hands  of  the  money  paid  by  the  Government  for  their  food,  which 
was  managed  by  a  committee  of  officers,  who  published  no  account  of  their 
receipts  and  expenses,  and  the  soldiers  believed  that  some  of  the  money  was 
embezzled.  The  Colonel  was  constrained  to  borrow  of  the  merchants  in  the 
town  the  sum  demanded,  and  satisfy  the  insurgents,  who  drank  what  they  had 
received,  and  reeled  about  the  streets  insulting  and  molesting  all  who  passed, 
roared  "  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity,"  and  then  fell  drunk  into  the  gutters. 

During  the  year  and  three  months  spent  at  Auxonne,  Bonaparte  must  have 
worked  very  hard,  as  a  great  mass  of  MSS.  remains  to  testify  to  the  amount 
of  his  reading  and  to  the  activity  of  his  pen  at  that  time.  As  to  the  passion 
that  animated  him — it  was  patriotism  for  the  little  island  in  which  he  was  born. 

"  He  undertook  to  write  its  history,"  says  Masson,  "  not  to  win  academic 
glory,  nor  to  gain  some  favour  by  a  flattering  dedication  to  a  Minister,  but 
because  he  desired  to  brand  with  hot  iron  the  oppressors  of  his  country.^What  . 
he  desired  to  write  was  the  apology  for  his  nation,  and  to  fling  a  pamphlet  in 
the  face  of  their  conquerors.  All  the  history  piled  up  by  him  has  no  other  end 
but  to  show  that  his  nation  was  ever  free,  and  deserved  to  become  so  once  more. 


34  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

His  object  was  to  show  his  compatriots  what  they  were,  and  what  they  ought 
to  be  ;  to  call  the  attention  of  philosophers  and  writers  to  this  little  corner  of 
the  earth,  one  moment  famous,  and  then  forgotten."  And  again,  "  French  at 
heart  he  was  not.  How  could  he  be?  Everything  in  him  was  Corsican.  He 
thought  of,  dreamed  of  Corsica,  and  of  that  alone.  He  had  for  that  isle  the 
passion  of  an  exiled  child,  thrown  in  on  itself,  who  communicates  its  secret  to 
none,  and  who  sometimes  dies  of  this  great  and  terrible  love." 

His  literary  work  whilst  at  Auxonne  took  three  directions.  First,  he 
laboured  hard  at  the  principles  of  artillery,  at  the  history  of  ordnance,  and  on 
methods  of  using  cannon  and  bombs  to  best  advantage ;  on  all  these  subjects  he 
collected  information  and  wrote. 

Secondly,  he  studied  history  greedily,  and  jotted  down  notes  upon  it,  and  on 
geography  in  relation  to  history. 

Thirdly,  and  mainly,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  History  of  Corsica. 

There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  entertained  that  he  regarded  himself  as  a  host- 
age for  Corsica  in  France,  and  that  the  energy  with  which  he  occupied  himself 
with  matters  concerning  his  profession,  was  in  the  hope  that  the  day  would  come 
when  he  would  be  able  to  point  his  cannon  against  France. 


VII 
AJACCIO    AND    BASTIA 

(September  30,  1789 — January  31,  1791) 

'nr^HE  tremendous  agitation  that  shook  France  had  scarcely  rippled  the 
-*-  smooth  surface  of  life  in  Corsica.  In  the  island  there  subsisted  none 
of  the  grievances  of  the  old  regime.  Those  who  esteemed  themselves  to  be 
nobles  had  no  privileges  worth  consideration,  and  hardly  cared  to  protest  that 
they  were  other  than  commoners.  There  was  but  a  single  wrong  under  which  the 
Corsicans  groaned,  and  that  was  the  French  domination.  There  was  difference 
of  opinion  in  the  island — one  party  desired  the  entire  liberation  of  the  island, 
and  looked  to  Paoli  as  its  head ;  the  other,  under  the  disreputable  attorney 
Salicetti,  aimed  at  retention  of  the  union  with  France,  mainly  as  it  opened  to 
them  a  wider  field  than  the  little  island  for  making  themselves  careers,  and,  what 
they  desired  most  of  all,  fortunes. 

Salicetti  was  the  delegate,  along  with  Colonna,  for  the  Third  Estate  in 
Corsica  at  the  National  Assembly,  and  Buttafuoco  and  Peretti  were  delegates 
for  the  nobility  and  clergy.  Arena,  an  attorney  who  had  embezzled  thirty 
thousand  livres  from  the  public  treasury,  was  another ;  a  more  respectable 
leader  was  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  a  man  of  substance  and  position  at  Ajaccio. 

Paoli  was  still  in  London,  along  with  other  of  the  patriots  who  had  resisted 
the  annexation  of  their  country  by  France.  To  him  Napoleon  had  written  from 
Auxonne  on  June  12th,  a  letter  full  of  enthusiasm. 

"  General, — You  left  our  island,  and  with  you  disappeared  the  hope  of 
happiness  ;  slavery  was  the  price  of  our  submission.  Overwhelmed  by  the 
triple  chain  of  the  soldier,  the  legist,  and  the  tax-gatherer,  our  compatriots  beheld 
themselves  despised — despised  by  those  who  have  got  the  administration  into 
their  hands.  Is  not  this  the  worst  torture  that  a  man  of  feeling  can  endure  ? 
Did  the  unhappy  Peruvians,  when  submitting  to  the  sword  of  the  rapacious 
Spaniard,  endure  greater  disgrace?  Traitors  to  this  country,  sordid  souls, 
corrupted  by  base  love  of  gain,  have  circulated  calumnies  against  the  National 
Government  and  against  your  person,  in  order  to  justify  themselves.  When 
I  read  these  my  blood  boiled,  and  I  am  resolved  to  disperse  these  vapours, 
these  children  of  ignorance.  A  long-continued  study  of  the  French  language, 
much  study  and  observation,  enable  me  to  hope  that  I  may  be  successful." 
Then  he  went  on  to  offer  his  services  as  advocate  with  his  pen  for  the 
cause  of  Paoli. 

35 


36  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

From  London,  Paoli  wrote  encouragingly  to  the  Corsicans,  but  warned  them 
that  it  was  in  vain  for  them  to  think  of  entire  liberation  from  France,  for  that 
would  certainly  entail  their  falling  under  the  iron  sway  of  their  old  tormentors — 
the  Genoese ;  and  he  proposed  that  the  island  should  be  constituted  a  Republic, 
governed  by  its  own  laws  under  the  protection  of  France.  But  this  suggestion 
approved  itself  neither  to  Salicetti  nor  to  Bonaparte.  To  the  former  it  did  not 
promise  sufficient  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  his  restless  and  rapacious  ambi- 
tion ;  to  the  latter,  it  conceded  too  much  to  the  arch-enemy,  France.  No  sooner 
was  Napoleon  in  Ajaccio  than  he  began  to  agitate,  and  almost  at  once  the  town, 
which  hitherto  had  been  tranquil,  was  thrown  into  ferment.  He  formed  a 
Revolutionary  Committee — one  of  those  terrible  hotbeds  of  riot,  rapine,  and 
murder — he  introduced  the  Revolution,  and  began,  unauthorised,  to  organise  a 
National  Guard. 

The  French  commandant  De  Barrin,  and  the  patriot  Gaffieri,  sent  troops  to 
Ajaccio,  and  disarmed  the  populace.  Napoleon  and  his  revolutionary  friends 
were  reduced  to  sending  an  appeal  to  the  National  Assembly  at  Paris.  He  had 
associated  with  himself  his  great-uncle,  Lucien  Bonaparte ;  also  Fesch,  his 
mother's  half-brother ;  they  drew  up  the  memorial,  which  is  dated  Ajaccio, 
October  31,  1789. 

But  Bonaparte  was  not  the  man  to  submit.  Bastia,  and  not  Ajaccio,  was  the 
capital,  and  there  the  decisive  blow  must  be  struck.  He  hastened  thither,  and 
proceeded  to  distribute  among  the  citizen  patriots  tricolored  cockades,  which  he 
had  ordered  from  Leghorn.  Then  he  headed  a  deputation  to  the  Governor,  and 
demanded  that  he  should  adopt  the  national  cockade.  De  Barrin  refused,  a  riot 
broke  out,  and  he  was  constrained  to  yield. 

This  first  success  emboldened  Napoleon  to  attempt  another  stroke.  Whilst 
launching  on  De  Barrin  one  deputation  after  another,  to  insist  on  his  authorising 
the  assembly  of  the  Militia,  he  took  every  step  to  form  the  National  Guard, 
without  the  French  Governor  having  any  idea  of  his  design.  De  Barrin  refused 
his  consent  to  the  demands  of  the  deputations,  and  then  suddenly  one  morning 
was  surprised  to  see  the  streets  full  of  the  patriots  of  Bastia  fully  armed,  and 
marching  to  the  church  of  S.  Giovanni  to  be  enrolled.  The  Governor  called 
out  the  garrison,  and  ordered  the  cannons  of  the  citadel  to  be  pointed  on  "  those 
beggars  of  Italians  who  were  setting  him  at  defiance,"  and  companies  of  cuiras- 
siers and  grenadiers  marched  upon  the  church;  whereupon  Napoleon's  newly- 
formed  body  of  Militia  issued  from  the  building.  Shots  were  fired  ;  two  French 
soldiers  were  killed,  two  wounded,  an  officer  received  a  bullet  in  his  groin.  On 
the  other  side  several  Bastians,  among  them  two  children,  were  wounded. 

M.  de  Barrin  now  hurried  to  the  scene,  and  was  so  intimidated  that  he  con- 
sented to  whatever  was  demanded ;  he  even  signed  an  order  to  the  Commandant 
of  Artillery  in  the  citadel  to  deliver  up  six  hundred  guns  to  the  self-constituted 
National  Guard.  The  officers  in  command  of  the  fortress  hesitated  to  obey, 
whereupon  the  Bastians  broke  in,  pillaged  the  citadel,  armed  themselves,  and 
insisted  that  they  should  garrison  the  fortress  concurrently  with  the  French 
soldiers.     When  tranquillity  was  restored,  the  Governor  ordered  Napoleon  to 


AJACCIO    AND    BASTIA  37 


leave  Bastia,  and  this  he  did  ;  not  a  little  uncertain  how  his  high-handed 
conduct  would  be  regarded  by  the  National  Assembly  and  by  his  military 
superiors.*  A  letter  was  at  once  drawn  up  by  some  of  his  party  at  Bastia  to 
the  Deputies  Salicetti  and  Colonna,  describing  the  events,  and  putting  their  own 
colour  on  them. 

When  the  position  of  Corsica  came  under  discussion  in  the  National 
Assembly,  a  decree  of  incorporation  with  France  was  pronounced  on  November 
30th,  mainly  through  the  instrumentality  of  Mirabeau.  It  was  couched  in  these 
terms  : — 

"  The  Island  of  Corsica  is  declared  a  portion  of  the  French  empire ;  its 
inhabitants  shall  be  governed  by  the  same  constitution  as  are  other  Frenchmen, 
and  from  this  present  the  King  is  requested  to  forward  the  decrees  of  the 
National  Assembly  to  the  Isle  of  Corsica." 

As  along  with  this  an  amnesty  was  granted  to  such  as  had  taken  part  in  the 
war  of  freedom,  Paoli  left  London  and  hastened  home,  his  heart  full  of  thank- 
fulness and  anticipations  of  a  reign  of  justice  and  peace. 

The  decree  of  the  30th  November  greatly  modified  Paoli's  views.  It  granted 
to  Corsica  all  that  he  desired  for  her ;  but  this  moderate  opinion  was  not  shared 
by  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  who  still  aimed  at  the  complete  detachment  of  Corsica 
from  France. 

On  his  return  to  Ajaccio,  Bonaparte  was  actively  engaged  in  organising  the 
Municipal  Guard  there,  as  at  Bastia,  and  with  some  anxiety  he  awaited  tidings 
as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  Assembly  had  received  the  news  of  his  high- 
handed proceedings  at  Bastia.  Happily  for  him,  the  Assembly  was  too  fully 
engaged  with  other  matters  to  concern  itself  about  the  vagaries  of  an  Artillery 
Lieutenant. 

Shortly  after  his  return,  the  new  Municipal  Council  was  elected,  and  to  it  his 
brother  Joseph  had  been  appointed  Secretary.  The  Mayor,  Jean  Jerome  Levie, 
was  entirely  of  Bonaparte's  way  of  thinking. 

Supported  by  the  Common  Council,  Napoleon  now  endeavoured  to  effect 
the  expulsion  of  all  the  French  officials  from  Ajaccio,  and  having  stirred  up  a 
riot,  he  succeeded  in  arresting  and  imprisoning  three  of  them,  one  a  major  of  the 
artillery.f 

The  military  occupied  the  citadel,  and  attempts  were  made,  but  in  vain,  to 
obtain  their  co-operation.  M.  de  la  Ferandiere,  the  Governor,  threatened  to  fire 
on  the  town  unless  the  officers  were  released.  Napoleon  was  in  favour  of  resist- 
ance, and  of  attacking  the  citadel,  but  the  Municipality,  cowed  by  the  deter- 
mined attitude  of  the  Governor,  merely  protested. 

That  Napoleon  kept  his  eye  on  the  citadel  as  commanding  Ajaccio,  and, 
perhaps,  also  the  whole  island,  the  sequel  will  show.  It  was  certainly  an 
astounding  piece  of  effrontery  for  a  young  lieutenant  on  sick  leave,  wearing  the 

*  The  authority  for  this  is  De  Renain,  Souvenirs  cCun  Officier  Royaliste.     Paris,  1824,  ii.  45. 
t  Nasica  endeavours  to  clear  Napoleon  of  having  been  the  instigator,  but  see  on  this  Bohtlingk, 
Napoleon  Bonaparte  seine  Jugend  u.  sein  Emporkommen.     Jean,  1877,  p.  145  seq. 


38  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

royal  uniform,  to  arrest  his  superior  officers,  and  attempt  to  storm  a  citadel  held 
by  the  troops  of  his  King. 

In  autumn,  1790,  an  election  took  place  at  the  Convent  of  Orezza,  to  choose 
the  departmental  and  district  councils.  Napoleon  went  to  Orezza  along  with 
Joseph,  his  brother,  and  whilst  the  latter  was  admiring  the  beautiful  mountain 
scenery  through  which  they  passed,  the  eye  and  mind  of  Napoleon,  as  his 
brother  Joseph  tells  us  in  his  Memoirs,  were  engaged  in  noting  the  strategic 
advantages  offered  by  the  country,  no  doubt  with  a  view  to  the  great  war  of 
emancipation  from  France  which  he  had  at  heart. 

At  Orezza,  the  veteran  Paoli  was  unanimously  elected  President,  and 
Salicetti  Procureur  Syndic  General.  Napoleon  himself  did  not  seek  office  ;  he 
occupied  the  time  that  the  electors  spent  at  Orezza,  in  going  about  among  the 
mountaineers  to  gain  their  confidence,  to  cast  among  them  hopes  of  emanci- 
pation, and  to  lay  the  foundations  of  military  organisation. 

On  his  return  to  Ajaccio,  Napoleon  set  to  work  upon  a  violent  diatribe 
against  Buttafuoco,  the  representative  of  the  nobility  of  the  National  xA.ssembly. 
He  was  already  becoming  alienated  from  Paoli,  whose  prudence  and  moderation 
he  supposed  as  due  to  senility. 

His  leave  of  absence  was  up  on  the  15th  of  October,  1790.  He  had 
obtained  a  prolongation  of  this  leave  on  the  plea  that  his  "  shattered  health 
necessitated  his  taking  a  course  of  the  waters  of  Orezza."  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  these  waters  had  not  been  drunk  by  him,  he  had  been  otherwise  engaged, — 
stirring  up  revolution,  drilling  the  guard  he  had  raised,  and  attempting  to  get 
hold  of  the  citadel  of  his  native  town  ;  acts  not  consistent  with  a  condition  of 
"  shattered  health."  He  had  found  a  medical  man  and  functionaries  interested 
in  his  political  projects  to  furnish  him  with  the  requisite  testimonials  ;  and 
now,  to  excuse  his  stay  in  Ajaccio  for  nearly  four  months  after  he  was  bound 
to  return  to  his  regiment,  he  provided  himself  with  other  equally  false 
certificates  to  the  effect  that  he  had  made  attempts  on  two  several  occasions  to 
return,  but  had  been  driven  back  by  storm. 


VIII 
AUXONNE    AND    VALENCE 

(February  i,*  1791— August  30,  1791) 

130NAPi\RTE,  on   his   return  to  France,  took  with  him  his  brother  Louis. 

-*^  On  the  1 2th  he  was  at  Auxonne,  and  on  the  i6th  wrote  to  a  merchant, 
James,  friend  of  his  brother  Joseph.  The  letter  may  be  quoted  to  show  how 
incorrect  was  his  French,  and  also  how  careless  he  was  about  truth,  as 
about  stops: — 

"  Si  je  suis  passe  a  Chalons,  sans  m'etre  procure  le  plaisir  de  vous  voire  .  .  . 
c'est  que  je  n'ai  ete  instruit  de  votre  sejour  qu'au  moment  queje  montait  en  voiture 
je  me  suis  vu  necessite  a  remettre  a  la  premiere  occasion  a  maquitter  de  la  com- 
mission de  mon  frere,  qui  espere  venir  lui-meme  lamiee  prochaine  depute  a 
I'Assemblee  Nationale,  renouveller  votre  connaisance  en  attandant  je  me  flatte 
que  vous  voudriez  bien  vous  resouvenir  de  moi.  Le  frere  de  votre  ami  doit  un 
peu  etre  le  votre,  c'est  avec  ces  sentiment^  monsieur,  mes  respect  a  monsieur  votre 
pere,  &c." 

The  assertion  that  his  brother  Joseph  expected  to  be  returned  as  Deputy 
to  the  Assembly  was  a  piece  of  idle  brag,  as  Joseph  would  be  disqualified,  not 
having  attained  the  legal  age  at  which  he  could  be  elected. 

At  Auxonne  the  Colonel  accepted  Napoleon's  excuses  for  not  being  at  his 
post  when  his  leave  terminated,  and  kindly  antedated  his  return  to  his  post,  and 
so  he  happily  escaped  the  consequences  of  his  act  of  indiscipline. 

At  Auxonne  he  resumed  his  old  habits  of  solitude  and  literary  work.  "  He 
occupied  in  the  military  pavilion  a  room  almost  bare,  with  no  more  furniture 
than  a  mean  bed  without  curtains,  a  table  placed  in  the  embrasure  of  a  window, 
laden  with  books  and  papers,  and  two  chairs.  His  brother  Louis  lay  on  a  bad 
mattress  in  the  adjoining  cabinet." 

The  two  brothers  were  hard  pressed  to  live  on  the  poor  pay  of  the  elder — a 
hundred  livres  per  month.  Twenty  years  after,  when  this  same  Louis,  to  whom 
he  had  given  the  crown  of  Holland,  deserted  his  post,  Napoleon  said  to  the 
Duke  of  Vicenza  : — 

"  God  knows  at  the  cost  of  what  privations  I  found  means  to  send  money 
to  pay  my  brother's  schooling.     Do  you   know  how  I   managed  ?      By  never 

*  About  February  i.     A  letter  from  Serve  is  dated  February  8. 
39 


40  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

entering  a  cafe^  never  going  into  society  ;  by  eating  dry  bread,  and  brushing 
my  own  clothes,  so  that  they  might  last  the  longer.  I  lived  like  a  bear,  in  a 
little  room,  with  books  for  my  only  friends  ;  and  when,  thanks  to  my  abstinence^ 
I  had  saved  up  a  few  crowns,  then  I  rushed  off  to  a  bookseller's  shop  and  visited 
his  coveted  shelves.  .  .  .  These  were  the  joys,  the  debaucheries  of  my  youth. 
When  quite  a  little  lad  I  had  been  initiated  into  the  inconveniences  and 
privations  of  a  large  family.  My  father  and  mother  had  a  hard  time  of  it  with 
eight  children."  * 

A  letter  written  to  his  brother  Joseph  on  Easter  Day  (24th  April,  1791)  shows 
us  how  fond  and  proud  of  his  little  brother  Napoleon  was.     He  writes  : — 

"  Louis  studies  hard,  and  learns  to  write  French  ;  I  teach  him  mathematics 
and  geography.  He  is  reading  history.  He  will  make  a  fine  fellow.  All  the 
women  in  the  country  are  in  love  with  him.  He  has  acquired  a  little  French 
style,  and  is  dapper  and  nimble.  He  goes  into  society,  salutes  gracefully,  asks 
the  customary  questions  with  gravity  and  dignity,  like  a  little  man  of  thirty.  I 
have  no  difficulty  in  seeing  that  he  will  turn  out  the  best  of  us  four.  Certainly 
none  of  us  have  had  such  a  good  education  as  he.  You  will  not  find  that  he 
has  made  much  progress  in  writing,  but,  then,  so  far  his  master  has  only  taught 
him  how  to  nib  his  pens  and  to  write  large-hand  copies.  You  will  be  better 
pleased  with  his  spelling.  He  is  a  charming  fellow,  working  hard  by  inclination^ 
as  well  as  through  self-respect  and  the  sound  sentiment  wherewith  he  is 
animated."! 

Whilst  at  Auxonne,  Bonaparte  got  his  letter  to  Buttafuoco  printed,  and  he 
sent  copies  to  Paoli,  who  answered  somewhat  coldly.  The  latter  did  not  relish 
the  vulgar  abuse  heaped  on  the  head  of  the  representative.  Napoleon  asked 
Paoli  to  forward  to  him  documents  relative  to  the  history  of  Corsica,  to  assist 
him  in  his  great  literary  undertaking.  Paoli  declined  courteously.  Then 
Napoleon  induced  his  brother  Joseph  to  apply  to  the  venerable  hero  for  these 
documents,  but  Paoli  again  refused.     He  wrote  to  Joseph  : — 

"  I  have  read  your  brother's  pamphlet.  It  would  have  produced  a  greater 
impression  if  written  with  less  partiality.  I  have  other  things  to  think  of,  just 
now,  than  fumbling  after  manuscripts,  and  getting  them  copied  out.  Besides 
I  am  not  well." 

In  fact,  Paoli  mistrusted  Napoleon's  judgment,  and  rightly  felt  that  he  was 
neither  old  enough,  nor  sufficiently  master  of  his  subject,  to  be  the  historian 
of  Corsica. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  an  estrangement  between  Napoleon  and  the 
veteran.  The  young  officer  was  wounded  in  his  self-esteem,  and  angry  wath 
his  hero  for  not  welcoming  him  as  a  belligerent  in  the  same  cause. 

Napoleon  does  not  seem  to  have  been  happy  at  Auxonne.  His  poverty  and 
his  foreign  extraction  alienated  the  other  officers  from  him,  but  not  to  anything 
like  the  extent  that  did  his  political  views,  his  scornful  demeanour,  and  his 

*  The  authority  for  this  is  Mme.  Charlotte  de  Sor,  NapoUon  en  Belgique  et  en  Hollande,  181 1,  Paris, 
1839.     Though  the  statement  is  not  improbable,  yet  the  authority  is  not  wholly  trustworthy, 
t  Masson,  Napoleon  Inconnii^  ii.  203. 


AUXONNE    AND    VALENCE  41 

bitter  tongue.  Bourgoing  says  that  one  day,  in  a  discussion  with  some  of  them, 
he  so  exasperated  them  that  they  flung  him  into  the  turbid  river. 

In  the  same  year  he  wrote :  "  At  Valence  I  have  met  with  very  resolute 
people,  patriotic  soldiers,  and  aristocratic  officers.  However,  there  are  excep- 
tions even  among  the  latter.     As  for  the  women,  they  are  all  royally  inclined." 

But  Napoleon  did  not  come  to  Valence  till  the  i6th  June,  1791.  His  old 
acquaintances  were  dead  or  dispersed.  He  at  once  became  a  member  of  the 
Revolutionary  Club,  wherein  he  could  pour  forth  incendiary  speeches,  whilst 
wearing  the  King's  uniform. 

At  Valence  he  returned  to  his  old  lodgings  with  Mademoiselle  Bou,  who 
took  a  kindly  and  motherly  interest  in  little  Louis.  Eight  years  after  (1799), 
when  Napoleon  was  returning  from  Egypt,  he  passed  through  Valence,  saw  and 
recognised  the  old  woman,  greeted  her  affectionately,  and  presented  her  with  a 
cashmere  shawl  and  a  silver  compass,  which  are  now  preserved  in  the  town 
museum.  But  before  this  he  had  found  employment  for  her  brother,  and  he 
did  not  lose  sight  of  him  when  all  went  well  with  himself. 

At  Valence  he  made  acquaintance  with  Montalivet,  whom  in  after  years  he 
called  to  high  positions.  When  First  Consul,  Bonaparte  sent  for  him  and 
offered  him.  the  prefecture  of  La  Manche.  When  they  met  on  this  occasion, 
Napoleon  overwhelmed  him  with  questions  about  Valence  and  the  people  there. 
How  was  it  with  a  good  limonadiere  in  the  town,  at  whose  place  they  were 
wont  to  take  coffee?  When  Montalivet  answered  that  the  old  woman  was  still 
alive,  "  Ah ! "  said  the  First  Consul,  "  I  fear  I  never  paid  exactly  for  all  my  cups 
of  coffee  taken  at  her  expense.  Here  are  fifty  louis  d'or,  send  them  to  her 
from  me." 

From  the  moment  of  his  arrival  again  in  Valence,  Napoleon  became  an 
active  member  of  the  Republican  Club,  of  which  he  was  President,  Librarian, 
and  Secretary.*  On  the  death  of  Mirabeau,  ist  April,  1791,  a  solemn  com- 
memoration of  the  departed  was  made  by  the  Club,  and  Napoleon  harangued 
therein.  The  officers  of  his  regiment  could  not  view  his  restless  polemics  with- 
out mistrust,  but  his  democratic  principles  gained  him  the  confidence  of  the 
soldiers.  Political  events  were  succeeding  each  other  with  the  utmost  rapidity. 
Hardly  had  the  news  of  the  flight  and  arrest  of  the  Royal  Family  reached 
Valence  before  the  Club  was  convoked  to  sit  in  judgment  on  them,  to  pass 
resolutions  amidst  a  storm  of  windy  declamation  and  disloyal  invective.  The 
tidings  had  provoked  the  utmost  excitement  and  indignation  against  the  authors 
of  this  military  plot.  On  the  3rd  July,  1791,  the  deputies  of  twenty-two  demo- 
cratic societies,  from  the  departments  of  Isere,  Drome,  and  Ardeche,  met  on  the 
field  of  the  Union,  at  Valence,  and  with  the  banner  of  three  colours  waved 
before  them,  they  marched  to  the  Cathedral,  where  the  Bishop  said  Mass,  and 
then  they  proceeded  to  take  the.  oath  to  the  Assembly.  Napoleon  signed  his 
adhesion  on  the  6th.  On  the  14th,  the  anniversary  of  the  fall  of  the  Bastille,  the 
public  official  ceremony  took  place.     On  the  field  an  altar  had  been  erected,  to 

*  Napoleon's  writing,  afterwards  so  illegible,  was  not  so  much  so  at  this  time.  Masson  gives  several 
examples.     He  affected  illegibility  later  to  disguise  his  bad  spelling. 


J 


42  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

receive  the  bishop,  the  clergy,  and  the  secular  authorities.  The  artillery  regi- 
ment and  the  National  Guard  formed  a  great  square  about  it,  and  outside  this 
was  an  enormous  crowd.  At  1 1  o'clock  the  Grand  Vicar  and  a  citizeness  took 
the  oath  ;  then  the  Bishop  said  mass.  After  the  ecclesiastical  function  was 
over,  the  military  officers  grouped  themselves  at  the  foot  of  the  altar,  and  a 
member  of  the  Municipal  Council  read  the  oath  :  "  We  swear  to  be  faithful  to 
the  Nation,  to  the  Law,  and  to  the  King ;  to  maintain  with  all  our  might  the 
Constitution  decreed  by  the  National  Assembly,  and  accepted  by  the  King;  and 
to  remain  united  to  all  Frenchmen  by  the  indissoluble  bonds  of  fraternity." 
Then  all  the  citizens  raised  their  hands,  and  repeated  the  words  "  We  swear ! " 
That  done,  the  officers  returned  to  their  corps,  read  over  the  oath  aloud,  and 
took  the  oath  from  the  soldiers,  with  raised  hand.  During  intervals  the  cannon 
boomed,  and  the  bands  played  Ca  ira.  The  oath  was  next  taken  by  the  clergy, 
and  a  solemn  Te  Deum  was  sung  in  conclusion.  In  the  evening  there  was  a 
great  banquet  of  officers  and  citizens,  at  which  Bonaparte  proposed  the  toast  of 
the  patriots  of  the  town  of  Auxonne. 

A  like  solemnity  had  taken  place  throughout  France.  The  idea  that  the 
foreign  powers  were  combining  against  France,  with  the  object  of  crushing  out 
of  her  the  nascent  spirit  of  freedom,  united  all  classes. 

An  artillery  officer,  the  Baron  Poisson,  thus  describes  the  feeling  of  the 
time : — 

"  Everywhere  the  thought  of  foreign  intervention  to  reduce  the  country 
under  the  yoke  of  former  despotism  created  the  liveliest  indignation.  The 
clubs,  the  public  gardens,  the  streets,  rang  with  the  voices  of  orators,  who  evoked 
the  recollections  of  Sparta  and  Athens  before  a  quivering  audience.  They 
recalled  Marathon,  Salamis,  and  Thermopylae.  Under  the  empire  of  these 
ideas,  four  thousand  youths  from  the  schools  and  universities,  spontaneously 
united,  came  to  ask  of  the  National  Assembly  authorisation  to  let  them  die  in 
defence  of  their  country.  .  .  .  Civil  militia  offered  the  regiments  new  flags,  to 
replace  those  that  the  colonels  had  carried  off  to  Coblenz." 

Under  the  influence  of  this  fiery  enthusiasm,  Napoleon  wrote  to  the  Com- 
missary Naudin,  "  The  southern  blood  runs  through  my  veins  with  the  rapidity 
of  the  Rhone ;  pardon  me  if  you  find  it  difficult  to  read  my  scrawl." 

Valence  was,  for  him,  too  far  from  the  centre  of  combustion.  He  wished  to 
go  to  Paris,  and  take  his  place  among,  and  harangue  from  the  tribune  of,  the 
Jacobins.     In  a  fever  of  excitement  he  wrote  to  his  great-uncle  Lucien  : — 

"  Send  me  three  hundred  francs,  that  sum  will  suffice  to  carry  me  to  Paris. 
There,  at  least,  one  can  push  to  the  forefront,  there  surmount  all  obstacles.  All 
assures  me  that  I  shall  succeed.  Will  you  bar  the  road  to  success  for  the  sake 
of  a  hundred  crowns  ?  " 

On  the  27th  of  July  he  wrote  to  Naudin  : — 

"Will  there  be  war?  I  doubt  it  for  these  reasons.  Europe  is  divided 
between  sovereigns  who  command  men,  and  those  who  command  oxen  and 
horses.  The  first  perfectly  understand  what  the  Revolution  means.  They  are 
frightened,  and  would  willingly  make  pecuniary  sacrifices  to  extinguish  it,  but 


AUXONNE    AND   VALENCE  43 

dare  not  lift  the  mask  lest  the  fire  should  catch  their  houses.     That  is  the  con- 
dition of  affairs  in  England,  in  Holland,  &c. 

"  As  to  those  sovereigns  who  command  horses,  they  cannot  understand  the 
principles  of  a  constitution.  They  despise  it,  believing  it  to  be  a  chaos  of 
incoherent  ideas  which  must  ruin  the  Frank  empire.  To  hear  them  talk  one 
would  believe  that  your  brave  compatriots  were  about  to  cut  each  other's 
throats,  so  as  to  purify  the  earth  with  their  blood,  and  cleanse  it  of  the  crimes 
committed  against  the  king,  and  then  to  bow  their  heads  lower  than  before 
under  a  mitred  despot,  under  a  cloistered  fakir,  above  all,  under  those  brigands 
of  parchment  (the  lawyers).  These  latter  will  do  nothing  but  quietly  await  the 
outbreak  of  civil  war,  which,  according  to  them,  or  their  stupid  ministers,  is 
inevitable." 

With  the  prospect  of  war  before  it,  the  National  Assembly  placed  all  the 
regiments  on  a  war  footing,  and  called  out  the  National  Guard.  By  a  decree  of 
the  20th  August,  five  divisions,  to  be  entitled  the  Army  of  Observation,  were 
sent  to  the  frontier  to  keep  it  from  Dunkerque  to  Basle.  And,  in  order  to  give 
to  this  army  a  unity  which  it  did  not  possess.  Deputies  were  despatched  as 
Commissaries  extraordinary,  to  direct  its  operations.  To  put  an  end  to  the 
desertions,  and  to  ascertain  which  officers  were  to  be  relied  on,  and  which  were 
not,  all  furloughs  were  stopped.  Just  before  this,  however.  Napoleon  had  asked 
for  another  leave  of  absence,  which  had  been  refused  by  his  commanding  officer, 
who  disliked  him  for  his  advanced  opinions.  Then  he  appealed  to  the  Inspector, 
the  Baron  Duteil,  and  obtained  from  him  permission  to  return  to  Corsica  for 
three  months,  during  which  time  he  was  not  to  draw  any  pay,  and  he  was  to 
return  to  Valence  on  the  last  day  of  the  year.  He  was,  however,  without  means 
to  pay  for  the  journey,  and  he  wrote  to  his  great-uncle  to  send  him  six  crowns, 
which  he  alleged  his  mother  owed  him.  He  probably  received  nothing  from 
home,  for,  on  the  24th  July,  he  borrowed  180  livres  of  the  quartermaster  of  his 
regiment,  again  90  livres  on  the  26th  August,  and  a  further  sum  of  106  livres 
was  borrowed  on  the  following  day.  Then,  attended  by  the  faithful  Louis,  he 
departed  for  Corsica. 


IX 
CORSICA    AGAIN 

(September  6,  1791— May  2,  1792) 

A  FTER  an  absence  from  home  of  six  months,  Bonaparte  was  back  again  in 
^  ^  Corsica,  in  time  to  assist  at  the  elections  for  the  Legislative  Assembly, 
which  took  place  at  Corte  at  the  end  of  September.  Joseph  had  desired  to  be 
elected  Deputy,  but  this  fell  through  ;  he  was,  however,  appointed  member  of 
the  Directory  of  the  Department. 

Paoli  and  the  sober  heads  did  not  relish  the  fiery,  revolutionary  zeal  of  the 
Bonaparte  family,  and  endeavoured  to  keep  them  out  of  power.  The  violence 
of  Lucien's  language,  the  audacity  shown  by  Napoleon  in  his  attempt  on  the 
citadel  of  Bastia,  and  fears  of  the  prospect  opening  before  France,  if  the 
wildest  demagogues  got  the  upper  hand,  made  all  the  prudent  and  moderate  in 
the  island  withdraw  from  association  with  the  Bonapartes. 

In  October  Napoleon's  great-uncle  Lucien,  the  Archdeacon  and  head  of  the 
family,  and  manager  of  their  small  property,  died  on  the  mattress  in  which  he 
had  put  away  what  little  could  be  saved.  He  died  with  the  prophetic  words  on 
his  lips,  "  Tu  poi,  Napoleon,  sarai  un  uomo." 

As  soon  as  he  was  dead,  the  great-nephews  fumbled  in  the  mattress,  drew 
out  the  little  store  of  coin,  and  proceeded  to  speculate  with  it.  The  time  for 
speculation  was  come,  and  the  money  arrived  opportunely.  The  Crown  and 
Church  domains  had  been  confiscated,  and  were  being  sold  ;  and,  as  no  one  in 
Corsica  had  money,  they  were  disposed  of  at  ridiculous  prices.  The  Bonapartes 
bought  some  of  them  with  the  stuffing  of  the  Archdeacon's  bed. 

On  the  death  of  great-uncle  Lucien,  on  October  15th,  Napoleon  became 
the  acting  head  of  the  family. 

"  There  was  no  disputing  with  him,"  said  Lucien.  "  He  became  angry  at 
the  least  comment  on  what  he  did,  and  flew  into  a  passion  at  the  smallest 
opposition.     Even  Joseph  did  not  dare  to  answer  his  brother."* 

The  condition  of  affairs  in  Corsica  had  considerably  deteriorated  during  the 
absence  of  Napoleon,  owing  to  causes  entirely  unconnected  with  his  presence. 
Volney,  Director  of  Agriculture  and  Commerce  in  the  Island  of  Corsica,  sent  a 
report  to  the  Government  that  gave  a  lively  picture  of  the  disorder.    He  stayed 

*  Memoirs  of  LUcien  Bonaparte,  Prince  of  Canino,  London,  18 18. 

44 


CORSICA   AGAIN  45 

with  the  Bonapartes,  and  was  much  in  the  society  of  Napoleon  when  in  the 
island  ;  and  the  latter  wrote,  on  February  17th,  1792  : — 

"  He  wishes  to  establish  himself  in  my  house,  and  pass  his  life  tranquilly  in 
the  bosom  of  a  free  people,  on  a  fertile  soil,  where  spring  is  perpetual." 

At  the  celebration  of  the  14th  July  the  oath  of  allegiance  "to  the  Nation, 
the  Law,  and  the  King  "  had  been  imposed  on  the  clergy ;  but  the  Pope  would 
not  allow  of  their  taking  this  oath,  and  such  as  did  were  regarded  with 
suspicion  by  the  bigots. 

At  Bastia  a  new  bishop  had  been  consecrated  who  had  taken  the  oaths. 
The  monks  and  friars  goaded  on  the  people  to  riot ;  they  fell  on  him,  and 
.almost  tore  him  to  pieces.  He  managed  to  escape  into  the  house  of  Arena, 
who  shipped  him  off  for  Italy.  The  garrison  in  the  citadel  had  looked  on 
with  indifference.  In  other  places  the  people  broke  out  into  riot,  and  rejected 
the  ministrations  of  the  priests  who  had  taken  the  oath. 

The  election  for  the  officers  of  the  Municipal  Guard  was  about  to  take 
place.  One  of  the  lieutenant-colonels  might  have  the  rank  of  captain  in  the 
regular  army.  Moreover,  a  lieutenant  in  the  latter  was  eligible  as  adjutant- 
jmajor,  but  as  that  only,  and  then  would  receive  the  brevet  title  and  pay  of 
•captain.  Bonaparte  aimed,  however,  at  being  chosen  Lieutenant-Colonel,  for 
the  sake  of  both  the  pay,  and  the  power  it  would  give  him.  But  his  furlough 
was  running  to  an  end.  He  applied  for  an  extension,  but  received  no  reply. 
In  fact,  his  Commandant  had  no  power  to  extend  it ;  for  the  National  Assembly 
liad  ordered  that  every  officer  on  leave  should  return  by  the  25th  December, 
and  that  a  general  review  should  then  be  held  in  every  garrison,  from  the 
general  officers  down  to  the  privates.  This  review  was  to  be  held  in  the 
presence  of  the  Commissaries  of  War,  and  the  Municipal  Officers,  and  "every 
•officer  absent  from  his  corps  or  his  post  at  the  said  review,  and  who  is  unable 
to  justify  his  conduct  by  the  production  of  a  leave  granted,  shall  be  held  to 
have  forfeited  his  place  by  the  fact  of  his  absence,  shall  be  debarred  from 
•offering  any  claims  for  pension,  however  long  may  have  been  his  service." 

The  order  was  peremptory  ;  and,  moreover,  Bonaparte's  regiment  was  ordered 
to  the  frontier.  He  remained  in  Corsica,  and  coolly  wrote  to  the  Commissioner 
.(17th  February,  1792): — 

"  Unforeseen  circumstances  have  obliged  me  to  remain  in  Corsica  longer  than 
the  duties  of  my  employment  exacted.  I  feel  it  is  so,  yet  I  have  nothing  there- 
with to  reproach  myself.  I  am  justified  by  having  duties  more  dear  and  sacred 
to  attend  to. 

"  To-day,  finding  myself  less  engaged,  I  should  like  to  join,  but  await  your 
advice.  How  was  I  classed  in  the  review  of  January  ist?  Has  someone  been 
appointed  in  my  place,  and,  if  so,  what  steps  shall  I  take  ? 

"  I  do  not  think  there  is  any  use  in  your  communicating  my  letter  to  the 
gentlemen  of  my  regiment.  It  all  depends  on  you  to  expedite  my  journey.  I 
will  start  on  the  receipt  of  your  letter." 

He  calculated  that  his  known  Jacobin  opinions  would  cause  his  breach  of 
.discipline  to  be  overlooked.    The  order  had  been  issued  because  of  the  numerous 


46  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

desertions  of  noble  officers,  who  escaped  over  the  frontier,  or  retired  from  the 
service,  dissatisfied  with  the  pohtical  complexion  of  affairs.  This  had  become 
vastly  inconvenient.  It  was  necessary  for  the  Government  to  know  on  what 
officers  it  could  depend,  and  also  to  fill  up  the  vacancies  with  promptitude. 

An  application  had  been  made  to  the  War  Minister,  De  Narbonne,  for  per- 
mission to  nominate  Bonaparte  as  adjutant-major,  and  to  this  he  had  consented 
on  the  14th  January,  1792,  not  knowing  at  the  time  that  the  young  lieutenant 
had  not  returned  at  the  end  of  his  leave  and  attended  the  obligatory  review. 
But  in  fact,  Bonaparte  was  aiming  at  something  higher  than  adjutant-major. 
Feeling  a  little  uneasy,  he  again  wrote  to  the  Commissioner  Sucy,  who  was 
married  to  the  sister  of  the  Abbe  Tardivon,  whom  Napoleon  had  known  on  his 
first  sojourn  at  Valence.  He  had  sent  his  former  letter  on  the  17th  February. 
This  was  written  on  the  29th  of  the  same  month : — 

"  In  difficult  circumstances,  the  post  of  honour  for  a  Corsican  is  in  his  own 
country.  With  this  idea,  my  friends  have  insisted  on  my  remaining  among 
them  ;  but  as  I  do  not  like  to  play  fast  and  loose  with  my  duty,  I  had  a  thought 
of  sending  in  my  resignation.  However,  the  general  officer  of  the  department 
found  a  mezzo  termine  conciliating  all,  by  offering  me  a  place  in  the  volunteer 
battalion  as  adjutant-major ;  this  commission  will  delay  the  gratification  of 
renewing  our  acquaintance,  but  I  hope  for  a  short  time  only,  all  being  well. 

"  You  have,  sir,  absolutely  neglected  me,  for  I  have  had  no  news  from  you  for 
some  time.  ...  If  you  will  give  yourself  the  pains  of  thinking  of  an  old 
friend,  you  will  tell  me  something  of  your  position.  In  the  present  situation  of 
affairs,  if  your  nation  loses  courage,  she  is  done  for.* 

"If  you  have  maintained  any  relations  with  Saint-Etienne  [factory  of  arms] 
I  pray  you  to  order  for  me  a  pair  of  pistols,  double  barrelled,  about  seven  or 
eight  inches  long,  and  with  a  calibre  of  twenty-two  to  twenty-four ;  as  to  price,, 
Say  seven  or  eight  louis  in  assignats  of  five  livres." 

The  coolness  of  this  letter  to  the  Government  Commissary  with  the  troops, 
from  a  young  fellow  of  twenty-three  who  had  disobeyed  the  orders  of  the 
Assembly,  and  was,  in  fact,  struck  off  the  roll  of  his  regiment,  is  astounding. 
Moreover,  his  letter  contained  a  deliberate  untruth.  He  had  not  been  offered 
the  adjutant-majorship ;  he  had  made  a  pretence  of  applying  for  it  whilst  aim- 
ing at  the  higher  office. 

There  were  four  battalions  of  Volunteers  to  be  formed  in  Corsica  in  accord- 
ance with  the  decree  of  August  4th,  1791  ;  and  previous  to  the  election  Napoleon 
went  with  Volney  about  the  island  and  among  the  mountains,  making  himself 
known  to  the  volunteers  and  putting  them  through  their  drill.  The  inhabitants 
of  the  towns  were  not  enthusiastic  for  service,  and  allowed  the  battalions  to  be 
filled  with  men  from  the  country,  the  men  among  whom  Napoleon  had  been 
seeking  popularity.  The  newly-enrolled  volunteers  were  to  assemble  at  Ajaccio, 
and  proceed  at  once  to  the  election  of  the  officers  for  their  battalion,  and  the 
three  Commissioners,  Muratti,  Grimaldi,  and  Quenza,  were  to  arrive  and  superin- 
tend the  election.     Muratti  was  favourable  to  Peretti  de  Levie,  and  Peraldi  was 

*  In  this  letter  to  Sucy,  he  let  slip  an  unguarded  expression,  which  allowed  to  be  perceived  what  lay 
at  the  bottom  of  his  heart.     In  speaking  of  France,  he  used  the  term  "  voire  nation." 


CORSICA   AGAIN  47 

the  candidate  put  forward  by  Paoli ;  Grimaldi  was  allied  to  the  Fesch  family, 
and  could  be  counted  on  ;  Quenza  was  indifferent  so  long  as  his  brother,  one  of 
the  candidates,  was  elected  for  one  of  the  two  places  of  Lieutenant-Colonel,  and 
this  the  Bonapartes  promised  to  secure  for  him.  Most  fortunately  for  Napoleon, 
through  the  death  of  his  great-uncle,  the  family  was  at  this  moment  compara- 
tively flush  of  money. 

The  manner  in  which  Bonaparte  secured  his  election  was  characteristic  of  the 
man — full  of  daring  expedients  and  dissimulations.  As  Lanfrey  well  observes 
relative  to  it : — 

"  This  short  episode  explains  his  entire  life.  It  proves  that  none  of  the  good 
or  bad  qualities  of  a  man  reveal  themselves  in  after  life  without  having  given 
some  indications  of  their  existence  at  an  earlier  stage  in  his  career.  Characters 
are  not  the  creation  of  sudden  explosions,  but  some  of  their  qualities  lie  latent, 
unobserved,  till  the  occasion  arrives  for  them  to  break  into  light.  It  is  only  by 
the  most  arbitrary  of  fictions  that  certain  historians  have  pretended  to  show  us 
successive  characters  appearing  in  one  and  the  same  man." 

The  account  of  the  transaction  we  are  about  to  relate  comes  to  us  on  the 
authority  of  Nasica,  an  old  Corsican  magistrate,  who  collected  his  material  on 
the  spot,  and  from  such  as  had  been  associated  with  Napoleon  in  these  early 
days.  His  testimony  as  to  this  incident  is  the  less  to  be  mistrusted,  as  he  was 
unable  to  see  in  it  other  than  an  instance  of  the  "  sentiments  of  honour,  virtue,  and 
liberty  profoundly  graven  in  the  heart  "  of  his  hero.  A  plain  Englishman  judges 
of  these  matters  otherwise  than  an  Italian. 

According  to  the  directions  received  from  Paris,  the  National  Guard  was  to 
be  raised  throughout  the  island,  and  the  officers  were  to  be  chosen  by  popular 
election.  Bonaparte  saw  at  once  that  this  raising  of  a  Corsican  body  of 
volunteers  would  place  the  towns  at  the  mercy  of  the  country,  which  had  very 
different  aspirations. 

There  were  other  candidates  for  the  Lieutenant-Colonelships ;  Pozzo  di 
Borgo  and  Peraldi  were  the  favourites  among  the  substantial  citizens  of 
Ajaccio. 

In  the  face  of  the  difficulties  attending  his  candidature,  Napoleon  exerted 
himself  to  the  utmost.  He  bribed,  cajoled,  threatened,  and  brought  all  his 
family  influence  to  bear  on  the  voters.  The  parties  came  to  personalities. 
Peraldi  turned  the  small,  lean,  conceited  lieutenant  into  ridicule.  Ridicule  was 
what  Bonaparte  never  could  endure.  The  very  mention  of  the  name  of  Peraldi 
rendered  him  livid  with  rage. 

The  town  was  divided  into  two  camps,  ready  to  come  to  blows,  so  fierce  was 
party  spirit. 

Bonaparte  had  resolved  on  his  plan — to  have  Quenza  elected  in  the  first 
place,  and  himself  in  the  second.  That  was  securing  two  of  the  three  Com- 
missioners. To  assure  the  victory  it  was  necessary  to  suppress  the  third, 
Muratti. 

On  their  arrival  in  Ajaccio,  the  delegates  installed  themselves  in  the  houses 
of  their  respective  friends  ;  Muratti  with  the  Peraldis,  Grimaldi  with  the  Fesch 


48  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

family,  and  Quenza  in  the  Ramolino  house.  For  a  moment  Bonaparte  was 
discouraged,  indecisive,  and  extremely  irritable.  At  length  he  resolved  on  a 
bold  stroke.  If  matters  were  suffered  to  take  their  course,  his  enemies  would 
gain  the  upper  hand,  and  he  would  be  unable  to  justify  his  conduct  in  having 
neglected  to  return  to  his  regiment.  After  some  consideration,  he  resolved  on 
playing  a  trump  card.  It  was  a  dangerous  one  to  play,  but  he  staked  every- 
thing on  its  success.  In  the  evening,  when  the  Peraldi  family  were  at  supper, 
the  door  was  violently  struck,  opened,  and  armed  men  entered.  Muratti, 
alarmed  for  his  safety,  fled  the  room.  He  was  pursued,  taken,  and  conducted 
as  a  prisoner  to  Bonaparte's  house.  Napoleon  awaited  him  with  intense 
anxiet}^ ;  but,  on  his  appearance,  put  on  an  expression  of  joy  and  affection,  and 
embraced  him,  with  an  assurance  that  what  had  been  done  was  done  in  the 
name  of  Liberty  and  for  the  assurance  of  the  freedom  of  the  election.  "  It  has 
been  my  desire,"  said  he,  "  that  you  should  be  free,  absolutely  free ;  and  you 
were  under  restraint  in  the  hands  of  Peraldi." 

The  Commissary  was  so  confounded  at  these  high-handed  proceedings,  and 
so  cowed  by  the  resolution  of  the  young  officer,  that  he  was  afraid  to  protest, 
and  allowed  himself  to  be  retained  in  Bonaparte's  house. 

Next  day  the  election  took  place,  and  Napoleon  received  most  suffrages. 
Pozzo  di  Borgo  mounted  the  tribune  to  protest  against  Bonaparte's  conduct ;  he 
was  attacked,  thrown  down,  beaten,  and  kicked.  He  owed  his  life  to  the  inter- 
position of  Bonaparte,  who  had  no  wish  that  his  adherents  should  proceed  to 
such  extremities  as  would  necessitate  an  investigation. 

On  the  loth  April,  with  incredible  coolness,  he  wrote  to  the  paymaster  of 
his  regiment  for  his  arrears  of  pay  up  to  date,  and  received  a  curt  answer  to  the 
effect  that  he  had  been  struck  off  the  roll.  And,  be  it  remembered,  his  candi- 
dature and  tenure  of  the  position  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  Municipal  Guard 
was  illegal,  were  he  still  in  the  regular  army,  and  only  a  lieutenant  therein. 

Napoleon  had  now  a  battalion  under  his  orders,  and  he  hoped  to  accomplish 
what  he  had  failed  to  achieve  before,  the  capture  of  the  citadel  of  Ajaccio.  It 
was  arranged  that  his  brother  Joseph  and  his  uncle  Fesch  should  stir  up  a  broil 
by  demanding  that  the  decrees  of  the  Assembly,  relative  to  the  displacement  of 
the  insermentes  clergy,  should  be  carried  out,  and  that  this  should  serve  as  an 
•excuse  for  Napoleon  to  interfere  with  his  volunteers.  These  were  mountaineers, 
entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  the  townsfolk,  and  completely  gained  by  their 
young  commander,  who,  having  just  inherited  his  uncle's  patrimony,  had  for  the 
moment  money  in  his  purse. 

During  the  religious  ceremonies  of  Easter  a  quarrel  was  fomented ;  Napoleon 
at  once  descended  into  the  town,  and  occupied  two  strategic  points  that  com- 
manded it.     A  few  shots  were  exchanged,  and  a  few  persons  killed. 

Napoleon  called  on  Colonel  Maillard,  who  commanded  in  the  citadel,  to 
admit  his  men  within  the  walls.  He  refused  to  do  so.  Meanwhile,  the  Common 
Council,  alarmed  at  the  threats  of  the  mountaineers,  ordered  Napoleon  to 
evacuate  his  posts.  He  declined  to  obey,  on  the  pretence  that  the  councillors 
were  acting  under  compulsion.     Napoleon  began  to  cut  off  supplies  from  the 


CORSICA   AGAIN  49 

town.  The  Commandant  ordered  the  cannon  of  the  citadel  to  be  directed  against 
the  National  Guard,  but  his  men  refused  to  obey.  Napoleon  was  quite  prepared 
to  proceed  to  extremities,  but  the  arrival  on  the  scene  of  the  Commissaries  of 
the  Department  prevented  him  so  doing,  and  he  was  constrained  to  withdraw 
his  troops. 

At  once,  with  his  usual  effrontery,  he  wrote  an  exculpation  of  his  conduct, 
addressed  to  the  Commissaries,  in  which  he  ingeniously  perverted  the  facts,  and 
called  on  them  to  exercise  vigorous  justice  in  the  punishment  of  the  Common 
Council,  on  whose  shoulders  lay  the  blame  of  the  transaction.  He  sent  a 
similar  explanation  to  the  War  Minister,  and  to  the  Legislative  Assembly ; 
Colonel  Maillard's  report  on  the  affair  also  reached  the  War  Office,  happily  for 
Napoleon,  at  a  moment  when  the  Minister  was  overwhelmed  with  work,  owing 
to  the  declaration  of  war  with  Austria. 

It  was  on  the  8th  July  only  that  the  Minister  found  time  to  answer  Colonel 
Maillard.  He  strongly  condemned  the  conduct  of  "  M.  Bonaparte,"  and  would 
have  sent  him  before  a  court-martial,  had  not  a  recent  law  removed  such  cases 
to  a  civil  tribunal. 

The  position  of  Bonaparte  in  Corsica  had  become  difficult.  At  Ajaccio  he 
had  stirred  up  many  enemies.  He  could  not  return  to  Valence,  where  he 
would  be  arrested  as  a  deserter.  He  resolved  on  going  to  Paris,  and  trying 
what  he  could  do  there  to  get  himself  reinstated,  or,  at  all  events,  to  explain 
away  his  very  compromising  conduct  at  Easter.  Moreover,  the  war  with 
Austria  had  made  an  opening  in  France  that  it  was  unwise  for  him  to  neglect. 
He  accordingly  started  from  Bastia  on  the  2nd  May,  1792,  a  month  before  the 
reply  of  the  Minister  of  War,  De  Grave,  had  been  received  at  Ajaccio ;  and  he 
carried  with  him  the  usual  budget  of  certificates,  to  explain  and  justify  his 
absence  from  his  regiment  at  the  review  of  January  ist,  1792. 


X 
THE    SUMMER    OF    '92 

(May  28— September  7,  1792) 

BONAPARTE  reached  Paris  at  a  time  when  everything  was  in  agitation, 
when  no  ear  was  open  to  listen  to  his  explanations,  and  no  one  cared 
about  the  petty  disorders  in  far-away  Corsica.  The  Ministers  of  War  had 
succeeded  each  other  with  such  rapidity  that  none  had  found  time  to  attend  to 
such  matters  as  concerned  Napoleon.  Narbonne  had  been  succeeded  by  De 
Grave,  who  had  commented  on  Bonaparte's  conduct  as  deserving  of  being 
brought  before  a  court-martial.  But  De  Grave  was  now  gone,  and  was 
succeeded,  on  the  9th  May,  by  Servan,  who  disappeared  on  the  29th  June. 
Then  six  Ministers  of  War  succeeded  up  to  the  21st  of  August.  All  brains 
were  occupied  with  the  war;  all  men  were  in  commotion  from  the  Assembly 
to  the  dregs  of  the  people.  The  news  from  the  frontier,  the  desertions  of 
their  posts  by  the  officers,  the  attitude  of  the  military  chiefs,  served  to  excite 
the  fears  and  passions  of  the  delegates  and  of  the  mob.  Nothing  was  spoken 
of  but  treasons  and  plots. 

We  have  now  again  the  assistance  of  Bourrienne,  who  met  his  old  school 
comrade  in  the  capital  and  renewed  friendship  with  him. 

"In  the  month  of  April,  1792,  I  returned  to  Paris,  where  I  again  met 
Bonaparte,  and  our  college  intimacy  was  renewed.  I  was  not  very  well  off,  and 
adversity  was  lying  heavily  on  him ;  his  resources  frequently  failed  him.  We 
passed  our  time  like  two  young  fellows  of  twenty-three  who  have  little  money 
and  less  occupation.  Bonaparte  was  always  poorer  than  myself  Every  day 
we  conceived  some  new  project  or  other.  ...  At  the  same  time  he  was 
soliciting  employment  at  the  War  Office,  and  I  at  the  Office  of  Foreign  Affairs. 
I  was,  for  the  moment,  the  most  fortunate.  Whilst  we  were  spending  our 
time  in  a  somewhat  vagabond  way,  the  20th  of  June  arrived." 

An  armed  rabble,  under  the  leadership  of  the  brewer  Santerre,  broke  into 
the  Tuileries,  surrounding  the  royal  family  in  their  private  apartments,  and 
demanded  the  restoration  of  the  recently  dismissed  Ministry — that  composed 
of  the  Girondists.  The  rabble  for  the  most  part,  however,  did  not  know  what 
they  wanted  except  money  and  bread.  Ragged  and  dirty  women  were  led  by 
the  handsome  harlot,  Theroigne  de  Mericourt.  The  riot  was,  in  fact,  deliberately 
■organised.     Men  in  rags,  yet  whose  white  hands  and  shirts  of  the  finest  linen 

50 


OF-4- 

UNIVLRi 

OF 
£AL|FOf»^ 


THE    SUMMER   OF   '92 


51 


pointed    them    out   as   of    superior   rank,   wore   hats   on    which   symbols    for 
recognition  were  indicated  with  white  chalk. 

The  King  was  subjected  to  the  grossest  indignities.  The  sans-culottes 
forced  him  to  put  a  red  cap  of  liberty  on  his  head,  and  drink  to  the  health  of 
the  nation  out  of  a  dirty  bottle,  thrust  into  his  face  by  a  man  in  tatters. 
Outside  the  palace,  Members  of  the  Assembly,  and  Girondist  journalists, 
mingled  in  the  crowd,  and  mocked  at  the  insults  offered  to  the  King. 

Where  was  Bonaparte  all  this  while,  who  had  been  fed,  clothed,  educated  by 
the    King's    bounty,    and    who    had 
sworn  allegiance  to  him,  and  to  main- 


tain  his 
tell  us  :- 


honour?      Bourrienne   shall 


"  On  that  20th  of  June,  we  met  by 
appointment  at  a  restaurateur's  in  the 
Rue  S.  Honore,  near  the  Palais  Royal, 
to  take  one  of  our  daily  rambles.  On 
going  out,  we  saw  approaching,  in 
the  direction  of  the  market,  a  mob, 
which  Bonaparte  calculated  at  five 
or  six  thousand  men.  They  were 
all  in  rags,  ludicrously  armed  with 
weapons  of  every  description,  and 
were  proceeding  hastily  towards  the 
Tuileries,  vociferating  all  kinds  of 
gross  abuse.  It  was  a  collection  of 
all  that  was  most  vile  and  abject  in 
the  purlieus  of  Paris.  '  Let  us  follow 
the  mob,'  said  Bonaparte.  We  got 
the  start  of  them,  and  took  up  our 
station  on  the  terrace  on  the  banks 
of  the  river.  It  was  there  that  he 
witnessed  the  scandalous  scenes  which 
took  place;  and  it  would  be  difficult 
to  describe  the  surprise  and  indig- 
nation which  they  excited  in  him. 
When  the  King  showed  himself  at  the  windows  overlooking  the  garden,  with 
the  red  cap,  which  one  of  the  mob  had  put  on  his  head,  he  could  no  longer 
suppress  his  indignation.  '  Che  cogltone,  he  loudly  exclaimed.  '  Why  have 
they  let  in  all  that  rabble?  They  should  sweep  off  four  or  five  hundred  of 
them  with  the  cannon  ;    the  rest  would  then  set  off  fast  enough.' 

"  When  we  sat  down  to  dinner,  for  which  I  paid,  as  I  generally  did,  for  I 
was  the  richer  of  the  two,  he  spoke  of  nothing  but  the  scene  we  had  witnessed. 
He  discussed  with  great  good  sense  the  causes  and  consequences  of  this 
unsuppressed  insurrection.  He  foresaw  and  developed  with  sagacity  all  that 
would  ensue.     He  was  not  mistaken.     The  loth  of  August  soon  arrived." 

Ambition  was  not  dead  in  Napoleon — it  slumbered.  In  the  existing 
condition  of  affairs  he  could  see  no  direction  in  which  to  show  what  was  in 
him.  Everything  in  Paris  was  in  confusion.  Ministers  of  War  had  succeeded 
each  other  in  rapid  succession  in  five  months,  as  already  said. 


BONAPARTE   AT    THE   TUILERIES. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Charlet. 


52  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

On  the  17th  July,  the  Common  Council  of  Marseilles  addressed  the 
National  Assembly,  demanding  the  deposition  of  the  King.  Then  a  rabble 
started  from  Marseilles,  on  a  march  to  Paris,  to  insist  on  the  execution  of  this 
demand.  On  the  30th  July,  this  rabble,  reduced  to  500  men,  entered  Paris, 
resolved  to  storm  the  Tuileries.  The  execution  of  this  plan  was  postponed  to 
the  loth  August.  The  events  of  that  terrible  day  are  well  known.  It  opened 
with  Danton  haranguing  the  Cordeliers,  "  Let  the  tocsin  sound  the  last  hour  of 
kings,  and  the  first  hour  of  vengeance  and  the  liberty  of  the  people.  To  arms, 
and  ga  ira  !  " 

The  King  and  the  Royal  Family  appeared  before  the  Assembly.  The 
Tuileries  was  invaded  by  the  rabble,  and  were  cleared  by  the  gallantry  of  the 
Swiss  Guard.  Then  the  King  forbade  that  they  should  fire  on  the  people ; 
they  were  disarmed  and  massacred.  The  Princess  Elizabeth,  that  morning 
early,  had  called  the  Queen  to  look  at  the  lurid  redness  of  the  sky  as  the  sun 
rose.  It  was  to  see  the  dawn  for  the  last  time,  save  through  bars  of  a  prison  ; 
and  the  threatening  sky  foretold  their  approaching  death. 

On  the  memorable  lOth  August,  Napoleon  seems  to  have  penetrated  with 
the  rabble  into  the  Tuileries,  for,  at  S.  Helena,  he  spoke  of  what  had  taken 
place  there  as  an  eye-witness  : — 

"  Never,"  said  he,  "  did  any  of  my  battlefields  produce  on  me  such  an 
impression  of  masses  of  corpses  as  did  the  quantities  of  fallen  Swiss  ;  whether 
it  was  that  the  narrow  dimensions  in  which  they  lay  made  their  numbers  more 
conspicuous,  or  whether  it  was  that  this  was  my  first  experience  of  the  kind,  I 
cannot  say.  ...  I  ran  about  into  all  the  taverns  in  the  neighbourhood.  Every- 
where I  found  great  excitement,  anger  in  all  hearts,  manifest  on  all  faces, 
although  the  frequenters  of  the  taverns  by  no  means  belonged  to  the  lowest 
rabble.  I  suppose  those  whom  I  saw  were  accustomed  to  meet  in  these 
taverns,  for  I  observed  that,  although  I  wore  nothing  remarkable,  a  good  deal 
of  attention  was  directed  towards  me,  and  many  hostile  and  suspicious  eyes 
watched  me,  as  one  unknown,  and,  therefore,  one  to  be  mistrusted.  Very 
possibly  because  my  features  were  more  composed  than  the  rest." 

None  of  Napoleon's  letters  at  this  time  show  that  he  was  in  any  concern 
about  having  been  struck  off  the  list  of  officers.  He  was  well  aware  that 
owing  to  the  desertions,  that  were  on  so  large  a  scale,  his  neglect  of  appearing 
at  the  roll-call  would  be  regarded  with  leniency.  Indeed,  two-thirds  of  the 
officers  had  forsaken  their  posts.  He  sent  his  budget  of  certificates  to  the 
Committee  of  Artillery,  and  the  Committee  advised  the  Ministry  of  War  to 
accept  his  explanation,  and  restore  him  to  his  position.  It  did  more  than  this. 
On  the  lOth  July,  he  was  advised  that  he  was  not  only  restored,  but  advanced 
to  being  a  Captain  of  Artillery,  and  that  he  could  reckon  on  his  pay  as  such 
from  February  6th,  1792.  His  brevet  was  forwarded  to  him  on  August  30th, 
and  his  appointment  was  to  the  4th  Regiment  of  Artillery,  of  which  the  staff 
was  at  Grenoble.  Four  companies  were  on  the  Var,  two  in  Corsica,  two  at 
Perpignan,  and  one  at  Brian^on.  Savoy  and  Nice  were  to  be  invaded,  as  war 
had  been  declared  against  the  King  of  Piedmont  and  Sardinia. 


THE    SUMMER    OF   '92  53 

As  to  the  matter  of  the  riot  of  April,  his  self-justification  was  not  deemed 
satisfactory,  or  the  account  of  it  forwarded  by  M.  de  Maillard  received  more 
credence.  Forty-eight  hours  after  the  same  minister,  Lajard,  had  re-established 
Napoleon  in  his  military  employ,  and  had  advanced  him  a  grade,  he  wrote  to 
the  commandant  at  Ajaccio  that  "  MM.  de  Quenza  and  Bonaparte  were 
infinitely  reprehensible  for  their  conduct,  and  there  can  be  no  disguising  the 
fact  that  they  encouraged  all  the  disorders  and  excesses  of  the  troops  they 
commanded."  He  added,  "If  the  faults  committed  had  been  purely  military, 
I  should  not  have  hesitated  to  take  orders  from  the  King  to  have  those  two 
officers  court-martialled,  as  well  as  all  those  mixed  up  in  the  same  affair  ;  but  the 
cognizance  of  such  affairs  having  been  exclusively  reserved  by  the  new  laws  to 
the  common  tribunals  ....  I  have  been  able  to  do  no  more  than  refer  the 
matter  to  the  Minister  of  Justice." 

Such  a  decision  put  Napoleon  out  of  all  concern.  A  civil  trial  was  out  of 
question,  and  the  matter  was  dropped. 

Meantime  Lucien  was  causing  trouble  in  the  family.  This  eminently 
disagreeable,  and  inordinately  conceited  youth,  thought  he  had  the  mission 
to  be  a  firebrand,  and  his  brothers  in  Corsica  could  not  keep  him  in 
order ;  he  had  written  a  violent  pamphlet,  which  he  desired  to  circulate. 
He  would  not  listen  to  the  advice  of  Joseph  and  Louis  to  suppress  it ;  and 
they,  with  difficulty,  induced  him  to  submit  it  to  Napoleon,  who  wrote 
to  him — 

"  I  have  read  your  proclamation.  It  is  worth  naught.  It  is  too  stuffed  with 
words,  too  poor  in  ideas.  You  strive  after  pathos.  That  is  not  the  style  in 
which  to  speak  to  the  people.  They  have  more  sense  than  you  suppose.  Your 
rodomontade  will  do  more  harm  than  good." 

This  did  not  please  Lucien.  Napoleon  again  wrote  to  him  urging 
moderation. 

Lucien  was  a  poor  creature.  He  wrote  a  letter  to  Joseph  on  the  24th  of 
June,  which  exhibits  the  man  throughout  his  life  —  consumed  by  vanity, 
querulous,  perverse,  impracticable. 

As  soon  as  Napoleon  was  reinstated  in  the  army,  and  advanced  a  grade,  it 
was  his  duty  to  join  his  regiment  and  present  himself  at  headquarters.  But 
his  eye  was  still  on  Corsica,  and  the  events  of  the  lOth  August  made  it  an 
imperious  necessity  for  him  to  protect  his  sister  at  S.  Cyr. 

On  the  7th  August  the  decree  had  been  issued  closing  the  royal  schools, 
and  an  additional  article,  specially  applying  to  that  of  S.  Louis,  was  passed  on 
the  1 6th.  His  sister  Elise  was,  therefore,  turned  out  of  her  pensionnat  at 
S.  Cyr.  It  was  necessary  for  someone  to  take  charge  of  her,  and  to  receive 
the  money  for  the  journey  back  to  Corsica  ;  accordingly,  Napoleon  and  Elise 
(Marianne)  both  applied  to  the  Municipality  to  furnish  the  travelling  expenses. 
The  letter  of  Elise  is  worth  giving,  as  it  shows  that  she  had  learned  no  spelling 
in  the  convent:  that  of  her  brother  was  also  full  of  blunders,  though  not  quite 
so  gross  as  hers. 


54  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

"/  ay  Ihonneur  de  faire  observer  a  MM.  les  Administrateurs  que  n'ayant 
jamais  connus  dautres  peres  que  mon  frere,  sy  ses  affaires  robligoiet  a  partir  sans 
qu'il  ne  mamneat  avec  luy,  je  me  trouverois  dans  une  impossibilite  absolu. 
devacuer  la  maison  de  Saint-Cyr." 

Accordingly,  an  allowance  of  352  livres  was  granted,  and  on  the  2nd 
September,  1792,  Napoleon  removed  his  sister  from  the  school,  and  took  her  to 
his  lodgings  at  the  Hotel  des  Patriotes  Hollandais,  and  to  his  little  eating-house, 
where  he  paid  six  sous  for  a  dish.  Marianne  was  now  sixteen  ;  she  was  lean,, 
with  a  big  head,  pale  olive  complexion,  abundant  hair,  a  firm  jaw,  and  a 
determined  mouth.  She  had  a  will  like  that  of  her  brother,  enormous  ambition 
not  yet  manifest,  and  strong  passions  also  dormant. 

Napoleon  could  not  possibly  leave  his  sister  unprotected  in  Paris,  and  to 
find  her  own  way  home ;  and  his  duty  to  his  sister  was  paramount.  He 
accordingly  sought  and  obtained  authorisation  to  take  her  to  her  mother, 
after  which  he  was  to  join  the  colours.  He  started  at  once.  It  would  be  a 
satisfaction  for  him  to  be  able  to  reappear  in  Ajaccio  whitewashed  before 
the  Peraldis  and  Colonel  Maillard.  He  wrote  to  the  quartermaster  of  his 
regiment  at  Grenoble,  to  send  him  the  arrears  of  pay  to  which  he  was  now 
entitled,  under  cover  to  a  merchant  at  Marseilles.* 

On  the  15th  of  September,  Napoleon  embarked  at  Marseilles  with  his 
sister  for  Ajaccio. 

The  events  of  the  summer  spent  in  Paris  had  produced  a  very  decided 
effect  on  the  mind  of  Napoleon.  Hitherto  he  had  looked  on  liberty,  equality, 
and  fraternity  as  principles  of  sacred  character,  to  be  adhered  to  with  tenacity, 
and  for  which  a  man  should  be  ready  gladly  to  shed  his  blood.  He  had 
suffered  too  much  and  too  long  under  the  ancien  regime,  as  it  affected  the  minds 
and  dispositions  of  his  fellow  students  and  brother  officers,  not  to  adopt  the 
principles  of  the  Revolution  with  an  enthusiasm  which  leaped  out  of  mortified 
pride,  and  was  armed  with  personal  resentment.  With  his  mind  charged  with 
the  theories  of  Rousseau,  he  had  believed  in  the  People  as  the  one  spring  of 
power,  authority,  law — impeccable  and  infallible.  But  in  Paris  he  had  seen  the 
People  in  action,  he  had  recognised  in  it  the  hyaena,  and  with  a  voice,  when  not 
cruel,  then  like  the  bray  of  an  ass.  He  had  envied  the  privileged  class,  now  he 
turned  with  scorn  and  disgust  from  the  proletariat ;  owing  to  his  innate  love 
of  order,  he  could  not  view  the  excesses  of  a  popular  triumph  without 
repugnance.  At  the  same  time  he  had  regarded  the  feebleness  of  the  King 
with  contempt  rather  than  pity.  Lafayette,  the  idol  of  the  Constitutionalists,. 
he  had  seen  desert  his  army  that  he  might  return  to  Paris  to  meddle  with  its 
political  movements,  and  had  curled  his  lip  at  him  as  an  incompetent  fool. 

Bonaparte  left  Paris  with  no  feeling  of  respect  for  one  party  more  than 
another.  His  convictions,  and  they  had  been  convictions,  were  dead.  But  one 
generous  impulse  moved  his  heart,  and  made  his  pulse  beat,  and  that  was  still 
the  one  predominant  passion  for  the  liberation  of  his  native  isle,  one  he  had 

*  He  received,  in  fact,  918.10  in  cash,  and  112. 10  in  assignats. 


THE    SUMMER    OF   '92  55 

imbibed  with  his  nurse's  milk,  one  that  had  fired  his  childish  imagination,  one 
that  had  grown  with  his  reading  for  the  History  of  Corsica,  and  had  been 
intensfied  by  acquaintance  with  Paoli.  He  would  have  to  consider  the  various 
forces  blindly  struggling  in  France  against  each  other :  they  were  all  to  him 
now  equally  indifferent,  equally  profane,  but  he  would  use  them  to  further  his 
own  ends — the  liberation  of  Corsica.  It  was  with  this  idea  inspiring  him,  that 
he  returned  to  his  native  island  in  the  vintage  season  of  1792,  when  the  peaceful 
harvest  of  the  grape  was  being  gathered  in  to  the  songs  of  the  peasantry — and 
the  air  was  scented  with  the  must,  a  pleasant  exchange  after  the  carnage  of 
Paris,  and  the  howls  of  a  blood-drunk  mob. 


XI 
THE    ATTEMPT    ON    SARDINIA 

(September  17,  1792— February  28,  1793) 

T  T  rHEN  Napoleon  arrived  in  Corsica,  it  was  his  intention  at  once  to  resume 
^^  command  of  the  battalion  of  Volunteers.  Paoli  was  by  no  means 
pleased  to  see  him  back  again.  This  veteran  hero  was  at  the  time  all-powerful 
in  Corsica.  Not  only  was  he  President  of  the  Departmental  Directory,  Com- 
mandant of  the  National  Guard,  he  was  also  Lieutenant-General  in  the  23rd 
Military  Division.  But  he  had  a  dangerous  and  unscrupulous  adversary  in 
Salicetti,  who,  with  the  two  Arenas,  had  been  dipping  their  hands  into  the 
treasury,  and  transferring  the  public  money  to  their  own  pockets.  Paoli  had 
incurred  their  resentment  by  his  remonstrance. 

Napoleon's  vanity  had  been  wounded  by  Paoli,  who  had  not  made  as  much  of 
him  as  the  young  and  ambitious  officer  had  expected.  Paoli  had  found  fault 
with  his  letter  to  Buttafuoco,  had  declined  to  assist  him  in  his  History  of  Corsica, 
and  had  shown  mistrust  of  him  and  his  family  because  of  their  advanced 
Republicanism,  that  ran  on  all  fours  with  the  worst  form  of  excess  in  Paris,  with 
which  Paoli  had  no  sympathy. 

Bonaparte  himself  had  been  disillusioned.  He  was  disgusted  with  the 
Jacobins,  and  despised  the  rabble.  But  he  had  his  future  to  push.  If  Paoli  would 
not  welcome  him,  he  would  join  hands  with  Salicetti.  He  knew  what  an 
unworthy  creature  this  man  was,  and  that  he  was  in  implacable  antagonism  with 
the  old  hero.     Nevertheless,  Napoleon  secretly  came  to  terms  with  him. 

Bonaparte  was  summoned  to  Corte  to  give  an  account  of  himself.  His  place 
in  command  of  the  fourth  battalion  had  been  taken  from  him  ;  the  officers  now 
in  command  were  De  Rocca  and .  Grimaldi.  A  stormy  interview  ensued,  and 
Paoli,  who  was  President  of  the  Council,  reproached  Napoleon  for  insubordina- 
tion, and  warned  him  that  he  was  treading  a  slippery  path.  His  regiment  of 
Artillery  was  in  campaign.  Why  did  he  not  rejoin  it?  If  he  considered  him- 
self as  officer  over  the  Volunteers,  then  his  proper  place  was  at  Corte,  and  not  at 
Ajaccio.  These  rebukes  irritated  Napoleon  to  such  an  extent  that  he  answered 
the  aged  Paoli  with  insolence,  he  charged  him  with  intriguing  against  the  in- 
terests of  the  nation,  and  menaced  him,  unless  he  were  reinstated,  with  appeal 
against  his  decision  to  headquarters.*     His  language  was  so  violent,  that  Paoli 

*  The  authority  for  this  interview  is  Nasica. 
56 


THE   ATTEMPT   ON   SARDINIA 


57 


ordered  him  to  withdraw.  Casabianca  was  general  in  command  of  the  troops 
in  Corsica ;  he  also  remonstrated  with  the  headstrong  Artillery  captain,  but  in 
vain  ;  Joseph,  his  brother,  raised  his  feeble  voice,  but  was  not  listened  to. 
Bonaparte  knew  that  he  could  rely  on  Salicetti,  whose  term  of  office,  as 
Procureur  General,  came  to  an  end  in  the  autumn,  and  who  was  returning  to 
Paris  as  Delegate  to  the  National  Convention  —  and  Salicetti,  a  Jacobin, 
thoroughly  unscrupulous,  had  undertaken  to  push  with  the  Government  the 
execution  of  a  scheme  Napoleon  had  formed  for  an  attack  on  Sardinia.*  The 
advantages  were  obvious.  The  occupation  of  the  sister  island  would  cripple 
Savoy,  which  drew  thence  its  ablest  soldiers,  and  it  would  give  to  France  the 
command  of  the  Mediterranean. 

With  respect  to  this  period  in  the  career  of  Napoleon,  we  are  unhappily 
without  material  which  enables  us,  with  any  certainty,  to  determine  what  were 
his  plans.  Had  he  entirely  abandoned  the  thought  of  making  Corsica  indepen- 
dent, the  ambition  of  his  life  up  to  this  point,  and  thrown  himself  wholly  into 
the  faction  of  Salicetti,  which  aimed  at  retaining  Corsica  as  a  portion  of  France? 
That  is  precisely  what  we  cannot  decide,  from  lack  of  documents  which  should 
disclose  the  condition  of  his  mind  at  the  time. 

It  seems  incredible  that  he  should  have  at  once  wholly  deserted  his  ideal 
plan  of  freeing  Corsica,  and  of  being  the  instrument  of  its  liberation.  One  can 
hardly  suppose  that  he  voluntarily  united  with  a  man  and  a  party  he  despised  ; 
the  revulsion  is  too  complete.  It  seems  more  probable  that  he  played  with 
Salicetti,  and  that,  whilst  pretending  to  further  his  views  and  to  defeat  the  plans 
of  Paoli,  he  intended,  by  means  of  a  bold  stroke,  to  place  himself  in  such  a 
position  of  power,  that  he  would  hold  the  fate  of  his  native  island  in  his  own 
hands.  Paoli  was  old  ;  he  belonged  to  the  past.  He  had  not  the  daring  that 
was  necessary ;  he  did  not  understand  the  forces  with  which  he  had  to  contend. 

It  must  be  clearly  understood  that  this  is  conjecture.  The  conduct  of 
Napoleon  at  this  time  is  a  riddle.  It  bears  the  appearance  of  the  gradual 
sacrifice  of  honesty  and  of  principle  to  expediency  and  self-interest.  As  to  the 
Sardinian  expedition,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  what  may  have  been  his 
object,  undisclosed,  probably,  to  anyone,  certainly  not  divulged  to  Paoli.  In 
race,  in  aspirations,  the  Sardinians  were  one  with  the  Corsicans,  from  whom  they 
were  separated  by  the  Straits  of  Bonifacio  alone.  Sardinia  was  more  than 
double  the  size  of  Corsica,  and  was  occupied  by  a  population  more  than  three 
times  as  numerous.  Bonaparte  saw  clearly  enough  that  Corsica  alone  would  be 
unable  to  hold  her  own  against  France,  in  the  event  of  a  rupture,  but  combined 
with  Sardinia,  her  chances  would  be  greatly  increased.  Moreover,  the  moment 
was  propitious.  France  was  engaged  in  war  with  Austria,  Prussia,  and 
Piedmont,  and  was  threatened  with  a  European  Coalition,  whilst  its  heart  was 
a  prey  to  factions  flying  at  each  other's  throats. 

The  expedition  having  been  determined  on,  the  command  of  the  naval 
operations  was  committed  to  Admiral  Truguet,  then  stationed  at  Toulon,  and 

*  That  this  was  Napoleon's  scheme,  debated  secretly  with  Sahcetti,  is  most  probable.  Salicetti 
produced  it  immediately  on  his  arrival  in  Paris  ;  and  he  and  Napoleon  were  at  the  time  in  close  alliance. 


58  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Paoli  was  ordered  to  furnish  troops  from  Corsica  for  the  expedition.  Six 
thousand  ruffians  from  Marseilles,  the  scum  of  the  population,  ardent  Re- 
publicans, without  discipline,  without  an  idea  of  obedience,  mortally  afraid  of 
hurting  themselves,  but  panting  like  wild  beasts  to  injure  and  devour  others, 
were  drafted  and  despatched  to  Corsica,  where  they  were  to  unite  with  the 
battalions  of  native  Volunteers  there  assembled,  and  a  descent  on  Sardinia  was 
to  be  effected  in  two  places  simultaneously.  The  Marseillais  arrived  at  Ajaccio 
on  the  15th  December.  Lucien  Bonaparte,  in  his  memoirs,  describes  the  enthu- 
siasm with  which  he  and  other  Jacobins  welcomed  these  "  patriots,"  but  the 
excesses  committed  by  them  soon  cooled  this  ardour  for  fraternisation.  The 
Marseillais  considered  that  they  had  come  to  Corsica  to  guillotine  aristocrats 
and  hang  priests.  They  quarrelled  with  their  hosts,  the  Militia  had  to  be  called 
out  to  restrain  them  and  force  them  back  into  the  transports.  Then  the  authori- 
ties of  Ajaccio  drew  up  a  remonstrance,  which  was  forwarded  to  their  repre- 
sentatives in  Paris.  The  result  of  the  expedition  was  failure,  absolute  and 
discreditable.* 

The  season  was  late.  On  account  of  the  hostilities  that  had  broken  out 
between  the  Marseillais  and  the  Corsican  National  Guard,  it  was  not  possible  to 
send  them  together  in  the  same  fleet ;  they  would  have  shot  each  other  down. 
Accordingly,  the  Marseillais  and  troops  of  the  line  were  sent  in  Admiral  Truguet's 
fleet  to  bombard  Cagliari,  and  the  Volunteers  were  to  deliver  an  attack  on  the 
Island  of  Sta.  Magdalena.  But,  in  order  that  this  diversion  should  succeed,  it 
was  necessary  that  there  should  be  coincidence  in  the  blows  delivered.  The 
troops  and  transports,  however,  did  not  arrive  before  Cagliari  earlier  than 
Feb.  14th,  on  account  of  the  gales  which  had  dispersed  the  fleet.  Then  the 
Marseillais  cut-throats  mutinied,  and  clamoured  to  be  taken  back  to  France.  No 
remonstrance  was  of  any  avail,  and  Casabianca,  the  commander,  was  forced  to 
yield.  At  the  same  time,  the  42nd  Regiment,  which  had  been  quartered  for  nine 
years  in  Corsica,  also  mutinied  and  demanded  to  be  sent  home. 

The  expedition  against  Cagliari  had  failed,  the  same  fate  attended  that 
against  the  Isle  of  Sta.  Magdalena,  in  which  Napoleon  was  engaged.  Paoli  had 
had  the  organisation  of  the  latter,  and  he  had  entered  on  it  with  no  desire  for 
its  success.  He  had  appointed  his  nephew,  Colonna-Cesari,  to  command  it,  and 
had  written  to  him  : — 

"  Remember,  Cesari,  that  Sardinia  is  our  natural  ally ;  that,  on  all  occasions 
of  need,  she  has  assisted  us  with  food  and  munitions  of  war ;  that  the  King  of 
Piedmont  has  ever  been  friendly  to  the  Corsicans  and  their  cause.  Do  what 
you  can  to  make  this  miserable  expedition  end  in  smoke." 

These  instructions  were  carried  out  in  their  entirety.  It  was  a  vexation  to 
Napoleon  that  the  expedition  had  not  been  entrusted  to  him.  In  a  sulk  and  fit 
of  spleen,  he  would  have  held  back,  but  was  constrained  to  take  part  in  the 
attempt.     Munitions  and  food  were  lacking,  money  was  not  forthcoming.     One 

*  Bonaparte  seems  to  have  again  meditated  the  capture  of  the  citadel  at  Ajaccio,  from  which  the 
garrison  had  been  almost  wholly  drafted,  but  he  could  not  get  men  together  to  attempt  it. 


THE    ATTEMPT    ON    SARDINIA 


59 


difficulty  sprang  up  after  another,  and  it  was  only  on  the  20th  February,  1793, 
that  the  expedition  started  from  Bonifacio  for  the  island  of  Magdalena.  A 
calm  ensued,  which  delayed  it  two  days,  and  then  the  vessels  entered  the 
channel  which  separated  this  island  from  that  of  San  Stephano.  The  Sardinian 
batteries  began  to  play,  and  one  man  was  killed  and  another  wounded.  The 
troops  were  disembarked,  and  succeeded  in  taking  the  little  fort  of  San 
Stephano,  which  contained  three  pieces  of  cannon.  Then,  in  order  to  bombard 
the   town    of  Magdalena,  the   siege   pieces  were  disembarked    and    placed    in 


BONAPARTE    IN    SAN    STEPHANO. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 

position.  At  this  juncture  the  sailors  on  board  the  ships  mutinied,  and  the 
ships  withdrew,  whereupon  the  troops  on  shore  were  seized  with  panic.  With 
difficulty  the  sailors  could  be  persuaded  to  re-ship  the  soldiers  ;  in  the  haste  of 
evacuation,  Napoleon  was  forced  to  spike  his  guns,  and  cast  his  mortars  into  the 
sea.     Thus  ended  the  first  act  of  this  egregious  and  ignominious  failure.* 

Such  is  the  story  of  this  expedition.  The  apparently  inexplicable  conduct 
of  Bonaparte  can  be  explained  only  by  allowing  in  him,  at  this  period,  that 
double  dealing  of  which  he  was  afterwards  so  fond.  He  wished  to  introduce 
the  Revolution  into  Corsica,  and  he  desired  to  hold  in  touch  with  those  at  the 
head  of  the  Revolution  in  Paris.     The  first  would  enable  him  to  keep  himself 

*  At  S.  Helena,  Napoleon  spoke  of  the  expedition  as  purposeless.  That  was,  because  it  had  failed, 
he  endeavoured  to  discredit  it. 


6o  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

to  the  fore  in  his  native  island,  by  the  second  he  hoped  to  take  advantage  of 
any  opening  offered  by  the  war,  or  by  the  internal  convulsions  in  France.  For 
this  double  object  he  needed  a  policy  and  an  ally  ;  the  former  was  to  keep 
him  prominent  before  the  eyes  of  the  Corsicans,  and  yet  was  to  be  one  accept- 
able in  Paris  ;  the  latter  would  maintain  him  in  touch  with  the  Paris  Revolu- 
tionists, and  yet  be  acceptable  in  Corsica. 

The  Sardinian  expedition  and  the  attorney  Salicetti  fulfilled  these  qualifica- 
tions in  a  way  that  shows  the  early  development  of  his  consummate  ingenuity, 
in  the  use  of  men  and  measures  to  further  his  own  ends.  The  expedition  may 
be  considered  as  a  first  step,  either  towards  the  coveted  independence  of  Corsica 
or  towards  the  coveted  aggrandisement  of  France.  The  extreme  views  of 
Salicetti  would  explain  Bonaparte's  connection  with  him  to  those  who  were 
dissatisfied  with  the  attorney's  patriotism,  while  in  Corsica  they  would  excuse  an 
alliance  with  him  which  might  be  of  the  utmost  value  in  Paris. 

If  this  be  correct,  then  we  have  in  this  incident  an  early  appearance  of  his 
faculty  of  keeping  several  apparently  irreconcilable  plans  going  at  once,  a  feat 
of  political  jugglery  in  which  he  became,  later,  such  an  expert.  It  was  the  first 
step  towards  a  final  rupture  with  Paoli. 

As  Corsica  lacked  nothing  in  the  way  of  liberty,  what  Salicetti  desired  for 
it  was  no  more  than  the  liberty  of  erecting  the  guillotine  there,  and  sending  to 
it  those  who  were  personal  enemies,  and  such  as  had  objected  to  his  peculations. 
It  was  a  moral  degradation  to  strike  hands  with  such  a  man.  It  is  hard  to 
believe  that  Napoleon  had  so  rapidly  sunk  in  his  moral  sense,  and  therewith  in 
his  self-respect,  as  to  have  contracted  a  real  friendship  with  Salicetti,  and  to 
have  veered  completely  round  in  his  views,  because  of  piqued  vanity.  It  is 
more  probable  that  he  used  Salicetti  for  the  attainment  of  his  own  ends — these 
being  patriotic  but  kept  secret  from  Paoli,  in  whose  energy  and  ability  he  had 
lost  confidence. 


XII 
THE    CAMPAIGN    AGAINST    PAOLI 

(February  28 — June  ii,  1793) 

'nr^HE  second  act  of  the  Sardinian  expedition  consisted  in  a  storm  of  mutual 
-*-      recrimination,  in  which  everyone  engaged  endeavoured  to  shift  the  blame 
for  the  discreditable y?^j"^^  on  the  shoulders  of  someone  else. 

The  failure  of  the  enterprise  probably  disappointed  Bonaparte  grievously,  but 
we  have  no  means  of  judging  of  his  views  and  feelings  at  this  period.  He  was, 
indeed,  in  correspondence  with  Salicetti  in  Paris,  but  probably  all  his  letters 
disappeared,  or  were  destroyed,  on  the  occasion  of  this  "  patriot's  "  proscription 
and  flight  from  Paris.  Nasica  informs  us  that  Bonaparte  made  himself  very 
active,  travelled  through  the  island  and  noted  the  strategic  points  that  demanded 
defence,  and  reported  thereon  to  the  Ministry.  He  did  not  intermit  his  activity 
in  the  Revolutionary  Clubs.  Lucien  was  at  Corte,  watching  Paoli,  Joseph  was  in 
the  Departmental  Council,  and  Napoleon  had  secured  many  adherents  among 
the  National  Volunteers. 

On  disembarking  at  Bonifacio,  he  and  his  comrades-in-arms  had  heard  of  the 
condemnation  and  death  of  Louis  XVI.,  of  the  declaration  of  war  with  England, 
as  also  that  the  Convention  had  despatched  a  Commissioner  Extraordinary  to 
the  island,  had  ordered  the  suppression  of  the  four  battalions  of  the  National 
Volunteers,  and  the  remodelling  of  the  force  under  officers  to  be  nominated  by 
the  Provisional  Executive  Council. 

The  tidings  of  the  murder  of  the  King  caused  great  uneasiness  in  Corsica. 
The  islanders  had   never  been  oppressed  by  the  feudalism  which  had  sat,  in 
France,  like  the  Old  Man  of  the  Sea  on  the  shoulders  of  the  people,  and  had  \ 
plucked  to  itself  all  the  fruits  of  the  earth.     The  Corsicans  looked  with  horror  1 
on  the  bloody  reprisals  which  had  attended  the  fall  of  the  Old  Order.     They  1 
were  without  social  and  political  hatreds,  and  when  the  Revolutionary  Tribunals  ! 
began  to  scrape  together  information  and  invite  accusations  against  such  citizens  I 
as  were  in  prosperous  circumstances,  or  by  fortune  of  birth  were  noble,  and  to  | 
send  them  under  the  knife,  then  they  could  not  master  their  indignation.     They 
had  tasted  something  of  the  sans-culottes^  the  ruffians  who  had   invaded  the 
Tuileries,  forced  the  red  cap  on  to  the  King's  head,  and  had  massacred  the  guards 
and  they  did  not  like  them.     Paoli  made  no  secret  of  his  indignation  at  the 
execution  of  the  King,  and   the  September  abominations.     But  he  made  no 

61 


62  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

attempt  to  rouse  the  people.  Joseph,  in  his  Memoirs,  exonerates  him  from  this.. 
"  Paoli,"  says  he,  "  found  that  he  had  accomplished  a  complete  revolution  against 
France,  without  having  desired  it,  without  having  prepared  for  it,  almost  without 
being  aware  of  it."  * 

At  Ajaccio  the  confusion  was  extreme,  disunion  flagrant,  and  civil  war  latent; 
and  this  was,  in  fact,  the  condition  throughout  the  island.  Parties  were  dis- 
organised. The  Clericals  and  Royalists  began  to  gravitate  towards  the  Paolists  ; 
whereas  the  most  fiery  spirits,  those  who  had  nothing  to  lose,  looked  to  France. 
By  all  the  feelings  of  his  youth,  Napoleon  was  tied  to  Paoli.  In  his  mind  he 
saw  the  dignity,  the  transparent  honesty  of  the  aged  hero,  and  he  saw  likewise 
that  all  those  of  substantial  means,  of  position,  and  of  moderate  opinions,  held 
to  him  firmly.  But  Paoli  had  wounded  the  pride  of  the  young  captain,  and  he 
had  allied  himself  with  Arena  and  Salicetti. 

If  Napoleon  were  to  throw  himself  into  the  Paolist  party  he  could  not  effect 
much  ;  he  would  be  eclipsed  by  the  splendour  of  the  old  chief.  He  considered 
that  it  would  be  more  to  his  personal  advantage  to  rqake  himself  a  career,  lean- 
ing on  the  support  of  Salicetti ;  at  the  same  time,  however,  he  behaved  with 
caution,  and  carefully  disguised  from  the  venerable  hero  the  steps  he  was 
taking.  For  the  purpose  of  throwing  dust  in  his  eyes,  he  visited  him  at  Corte, 
and  endeavoured  to  persuade  him  that  he  was  in  complete  agreement  with  his 
views.  Yet  all  this  while  a  blow  was  being  prepared  to  crush  the  old  man.  At 
the  stormy  interview  in  October,  1792,  the  young  artillery  officer  had  threatened 
Paoli  with  a  deputation  to  the  Convention  denouncing  him,  and  this  threat  was 
actually  put  in  execution,  but  with  secrecy. 

The  club  of  which  Napoleon  was  the  soul  despatched  a  deputation,  on  the 
27th  January,  1793,  with  Lucien  Bonaparte  and  Semonville  at  the  head,  to 
Marseilles,  to  denounce  Paoli  to  the  Jacobin  Clubs  there,  and  then  to  proceed 
to  Paris  for  the  same  purpose.  This  denunciation  was  calculated  to  bring  the 
white  head  of  the  old  defender  of  his  country  under  the  knife  of  the  guillotine. 
What  must  have  been  the  searing  of  Napoleon's  conscience  when  he  not  only 
lent  himself  to  this,  but  instigated  such  an  infamous  proceeding  ! 

Lucien  gives  an  account,  in  his  Memoirs,  of  the  progress  made  by  the 
deputation. 

Lucien  was  not  yet  eighteen  years  old,  and  yet  he  was  commissioned  to  call 
down  the  vengeance  of  the  National  Convention  on  the  venerable  hero  of  nearly 
seventy,  the  greatest  man  Corsica  had  ever  produced ! 

Lucien  says  :  "  My  vanity  was  so  excited,  when  we  reached  the  haven  of 
Marseilles,  that  I  did  all  in  my  power  to  attract  on  myself  the  eyes  of  the  crowd 
assembled  to  see  us  disembark.  We  hardly  rested,  and  went  on  at  once  to  the 
club.  The  members,  wearing  the  red  cap  of  the  Jacobins  on  their  heads,  sat  in 
a  large,  dimly-lighted  hall.  The  tribunes  were  filled  with  noisy  women.  As 
soon  as  the  President  had  announced  that  a  deputation  of  Corsican  patriots  had 
arrived  bearing  important  despatches,  then  a  lull  ensued,  and  I  was  appointed  to 
occupy  the  tribune  and  speak,  before  I  had  thought  what  I  had  to  say.     I  cried 

*  Mim.  du  roi  Joseph,  i.  51. 


THE    CAMPAIGN   AGAINST    PAOLI  63 

out  that  the  Corsican  nation  was  betrayed,  and  that  we  had  come  to  entreat  help 
of  our  brothers.  Not  knowing  at  the  time  of  the  flight  of  my  family,  I  felt  no 
personal  animosity  against  Paoli,  and  I  was  willing  to  spare  him  ;  but  the 
applause  I  received  grew  with  the  vehemence  of  my  words.  .  .  .  Carried  away  by 
the  approval  of  the  audience,  I  said  whatever  came  uppermost,  and  would  serve 
to  excite  their  applause.  I  entreated  for  speedy  assistance  ;  I  described  Paoli  as 
having  misused  the  popular  confidence,  and  as  one  who  had  returned  to  his  native 
Corsica  only  in  order  to  hand  it  over  to  the  English.  ...  I  did  not  spare  these 
latter  in  my  declamation.  I  found  it  touched  the  audience  where  most  sensitive, 
and  I  made  my  great  point  therewith.  I  was  smothered  with  embraces,  and 
overwhelmed  with  compliments.  The  crowd  would  hardly  allow  me  to  descend 
from  the  tribune.  I  spoke  for  two  hours  in  rambling  fashion.  One  demand 
followed  another.  My  speech  was  to  be  printed.  A  delegation  was  to  be  sent  to 
the  Governor  of  the  Department ;  a  deputation  of  three  members  of  the  club  to 
attend  us  to  the  Jacobins  of  Paris,  there  to  denounce  the  treachery,  and  demand 
revenge — all  these  proposals  were  voted  unanimously.  My  comrades  from 
Ajaccio  were,  at  heart,  little  disposed  to  go  to  Paris,  but  I  resolved  to  travel 
thither  with  the  three  deputies  from  Marseilles." 

However,  next  day  this  wretched  boy  went  to  see  the  guillotine  in  full 
operation  at  Marseilles — chop !  chop !  chop  !  all  day,  and  heads  falling ! — and 
his  desire  to  proceed  to  Paris  was  so  sensibly  abated,  that,  he  tells  us,  he  allowed 
the  deputation  to  proceed  without  him,  and  sneaked  back  to  his  mother  by  the 
next  sailing  vessel  for  Corsica.  The  deputation  arrived  in  Paris  on  the  5  th 
February,  1793. 

Salicetti  was  uneasy.  He  knew  what  combustible  material  existed  in  Cor- 
sica, and  how  that  an  attempt  to  bring  Paoli  before  the  tribunal  of  blood  in 
Paris  would  throw  the  entire  island  into  revolt.  He  advised  caution  and  half- 
measures,  and  then  that  he  himself  should  be  sent  into  Corsica  to  allay  the 
ferment  of  minds,  and  deal  with  the  great  man  in  such  a  manner  as  to  reduce 
his  power  of  resistance. 

The  first  step  taken  was  the  suppression  of  the  National  Volunteers,  of 
which  Paoli  was  Commander-in-Chief,  and  the  reconstruction  of  the  force  under 
leaders  on  whom  more  reliance  could  be  placed.  Accordingly  a  Commissioner, 
Lacombe  Saint-Michel,  was  sent  to  Corsica  to  see  to  the  execution  of  this 
decree.  He  disembarked  at  Bastia  on  the  17th  February,  1793,  and  was  very 
ill  received.  The  new  force  was  to  be  united  with  the  Army  of  Italy  under 
Biron,  who  was  at  Lyons.  The  latter  received  orders  to  summon  Paoli  to  the 
mainland,  and  he  sent  a  man-of-war  to  Corsica  to  bring  Paoli  to  France.  The 
latter  declined  to  go  on  board.  He  alleged  his  age  and  infirm  health  as  excuses 
for  declining  the  invitation. 

The  irritation  in  the  island  increased,  and  Lacombe  returned  to  Toulon  for 
further  instructions.  Eight  days  after  Salicetti  arrived  there,  and  had  consulta- 
tion with  him.  He  and  his  fellow-Commissioner  Delcher  decided  to  take  with 
them  the  Vermandois  regiment,  and  with  this  they  disembarked  at  San  Fiorenzo 
on  the  5th  April. 

In  the  meantime  General  Biron  had  informed  the  Minister  of  War  that  Paoli 
had  refused  to  enter  the  trap  opened  for  him.     At  the  same  time  arrived  an 


64  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

address  from  the  Marseillais,  who  had  so  disgraced  themselves  in  the  expedi- 
tion to  Sardinia.  In  this  address  they  threw  the  entire  hlame  of  the  failure  on 
Paoli,  who,  they  said,  had  treasonably  done  everything  in  his  power  to  frustrate 
the  objects  of  the  undertaking.  To  the  Marseillais  some  of  the  Corsican  Volun- 
teers under  Arena  added  their  accusations  against  the  great  man. 

The  Convention  decreed  that  "  the  Commissioners  were  authorised,  if  they 
saw  fit,  to  arrest  Paoli,  and  to  send  him,  along  with  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  Procureur- 
General  of  the  Department,  before  the  Convention." 

The  news  of  this  decree  reached  Bastia  on  the  17th  April.  It  produced 
stupor  at  Corte,  and  an  explosion  of  fury  throughout  the  island. 

Royalists  and  Clericals  made  common  cause  at  once  with  the  Independents. 
On  the  1 8th  the  Mayor  of  Calvi  and  the  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  third 
battalion  of  Volunteers  took  up  arms,  and  attacked  the  French  troops  in  garri- 
son. The  same  thing  took  place  at  Isola,  Rossa,  and  Porta  a'  Ampugnani.  At 
Ajaccio,  in  the  club  of  the  Moderates,  Peraldi  proposed  an  address  to  the  Con- 
vention, in  which  he  indignantly  defended  Paoli.  In  the  Revolutionary  Club 
Bonaparte  also  drew  up  one. 

He  was  playing  such  a  double  game  that  neither  party  trusted  him.  Paoli 
wrote  on  May  13th  : — 

"  The  behaviour  of  Bonaparte  is  too  puzzling  to  be  unravelled.  He  would 
have  me  believe  that  he  is  acting  independently  of  the  will  of  Salicetti,  to  whose 
violence  all  disorders  are  attributable,  which  has  provoked  such  jealousies,  and 
has  endangered  the  tranquillity  of  the  Department."* 

And  yet  Lacombe  had  actually  issued  a  warrant  for  his  apprehension,  believ- 
ing him  to  be  a  dangerous  partisan  of  the  Independents.^ 

In  after  times  those  who  have  written  laudatory  biographies  and  histories  of 
Napoleon  have  had  some  difficulty  in  dealing  with  his  tortuous  conduct  at  this 
period,  and  they  have  taken  refuge  in  the  explanation  that  he  was  driven  into 
opposition  to  Paoli  by  the  latter  having  entered  into  correspondence  with  the 
English,  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  up  the  island  to  them.  Indeed,  at  S. 
Helena  'Napoleon  himself  made  this  assertion.  But  there  is  no  evidence  what- 
ever that  this  was  Paoli's  intention  at  the  time,  much  less  that  he  had  taken 
steps  in  that  direction.  No  scrap  of  correspondence  has  been  produced  to 
substantiate  the  charge. 

Now  only  did  Bonaparte  throw  in  his  lot  openly  with  Salicetti  and  the 
French  party.  No  principle  was  involved.  He  was  breaking  with  his  past ;  he 
set  himself  in  opposition  to  the  man  whom  he  had  idolised,  and  he  took  the 
side  of  the  French  whom  he  had  hated  with  a  deadly  animosity.  And  for  what 
end?     His  own  personal  advancement.     We  can  find  no  other. 

Joseph  was  now  made  by  him  to  pass  into  the  service  of  Salicetti,  and 
become  his  secretary,  just  a  fortnight  after  he  had  drawn  up  the  protest  to  the 
Convention  in  favour  of  Paoli.     Napoleon  obtained  from  the  Commissioners  his 

*  QuiTERA,  Arch.  St.  Ital.f  xi.  533. 

t  Biographical  Anecdotes  of  the  Founders  of  the  French  Republic ^  London,  1797. 


THE    CAMPAIGN   AGAINST    PAOLI  65 

own  appointment  as  Inspector-General  of  Artillery  in  Corsica ;  and  on  the 
morrow  he  made  his  fourth  attempt  to  capture  the  citadel  of  Ajaccio. 

The  Vengeur  was  a  vessel  belonging  to  Truguet's  squadron,  designed  for  the 
Sardinian  expedition,  which  had  run  aground  in  the  bay  of  Ajaccio.  Her 
cannon  had  been  brought  ashore,  and  were  on  the  quay.  As  Bonaparte  was 
appointed  inspector  of  artillery,  he  sent  word  to  the  commandant  of  the  citadel 
that  he  purposed  removing  the  cannon  within  the  walls  of  the  fortress.  As  the 
pieces  of  ordnance  were  very  heavy,  this  would  require  a  considerable  number  of 
men  to  be  employed  for  the  transport ;  and  it  was  on  this  he  reckoned.  His 
intention  was,  when  the  drawbridge  was  lowered,  to  leave  a  cannon  upon  it,  so 
that  it  could  not  be  raised,  and  then  to  seize  on  the  castle.  But  the  com- 
mandant of  the  battalion  refused  his  concurrence  without  written  orders  from 
Paoli.  What  was  to  be  done  ?  He  proposed  first  to  raise  a  barricade  of  sand- 
bags during  the  night  before  the  gates  of  the  citadel,  to  bring  up  his  cannon, 
and  blow  in  the  gates.  However,  he  was  unable  to  persuade  those  conspiring 
with  him  to  support  him  in  so  daring  an  attempt,  and  then  bribery  and  promises 
were  tried  with  the  garrison.  But  promises  were  mistrusted,  and  of  money 
Bonaparte  had  but  little  to  dispose,  consequently  the  undertaking  was  aban- 
doned. 

It  was  not  possible  that  this  audacious  attempt  should  remain  secret,  and 
when  it  was  bruited  about,  the  exasperation  against  the  young  captain  was 
great.  He  had  sent  his  brother  Louis  on  a  secret  message  to  Toulon  ;  Joseph 
was  already  with  Salicetti.  Paoli  sent  him  peremptory  orders  to  come  to  Corte, 
and  explain  the  meaning  of  his  ambiguous  conduct,  and  of  his  meditated  attack 
on  the  citadel. 

At  Ajaccio  his  position  was  no  longer  tenable.  His  life  was  in  danger.  He 
was  obliged  to  fly,  in  disguise  of  a  sailor,  in  a  fishing  boat  to  Bastia,  which  he 
reached  on  the   lOth  May. 

Next  day  he  formed  a  new  plan  of  attack  on  his  native  town.  This  con- 
sisted in  bringing  into  it  some  detachments  of  a  Swiss  regiment  then  quartered 
at  Bastia,  under  pretext  that  they  were  under  orders  to  embark  for  France. 
Whilst  they  were  in  the  town,  two  frigates,  stationed  at  San  Fiorenzo,  were  to 
enter  the  bay  and  prepare  for  action.  By  means  of  the  Swiss  troops  in  the 
town,  and  the  cannon  of  the  frigates,  he  hoped  to  intimidate  the  citizens,  and 
force  the  garrison  of  the  citadel  to  capitulate.  Lacombe  and  Salicetti  approved 
of  the  measure,  with  certain  modifications,  and  the  former  wrote  to  the  Minister 
of  War :  "  The  citizens  of  Ajaccio  are  for  us,  but  are  oppressed  by  a  Corsican 
garrison,  and  dread  a  descent  from  the  interior.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Quenza, 
commandant  at  Bonifacio,  has  given  a  seditious  order,  and  has  laid  his  hand  on 
the  military  chest.     We  have  ordered  his  arrest." 

On  the  22nd,  Lacombe,  Bonaparte,  and  Salicetti  embarked  at  San  Fiorenzo ; 
the  little  squadron  consisted  of  a  frigate,  a  corvette,  two  gunboats,  and  some 
transports,  the  latter  filled  with  detachments  of  infantry  and  gendarmerie,  an 
artillery  train  and  some  volunteers.  They  were  to  arrive  at  night  before 
Ajaccio,  and  take  the  citadel  by  a  coup  de  main.     The  sending  of  the  troops  by 


66 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


land  was  deemed  likely  to  arouse  the  suspicions  of  the  Ajaccians,  who  might 
refuse  to  receive  them.  A  storm  came  on  and  dispersed  the  flotilla,  which  did 
not  reach  its  destination  for  six  days.  In  the  meantime,  Paoli  had  got  wind  of 
what  was  intended,  and  large  numbers  of  armed  peasants  were  poured  into  the 
town,  and  the  guns  of  the  citadel  prepared  to  fire.  Orders  were  sent  for  the 
arrest  of  the  Bonaparte  family  and  the  accomplices  of  Napoleon.  But  fore- 
warned, Madame  Bonaparte  escaped  on  the  night  of  the  23rd  May,  with  Louis, 
Marianne,  and  Pauline,  and  the  Abbe  Fesch.  Jerome  and  Caroline  were  left  in 
concealment  with  their  maternal  aunt. 

When  on  the  29th  the  vessels  of  Lacombe  and  Bonaparte  appeared  off 
Ajaccio,  no  salvo  of  artillery  welcomed  them.  A  detachment  of  grenadiers  and 
gendarmes,  and  four  pieces  of  artillery  were  landed  at  Orbitello,  and  Bonaparte, 

with  his  volunteers,  disem- 
barked in  the  island  of 
Sanguinario,  where  he  was 
received  with  discharges  of 
firearms,  and  only  owed  his 
safety  to  the  arrival  of  La- 
combe with  supports.  The 
attempt  had  utterly  failed, 
and  during  the  night  the  de- 
tachments were  re-embarked, 
and  the  squadron  returned 
discouraged  and  discomfited. 
At  Calvi  Napoleon  met 
his  mother  and  brother  and 
sisters.  The  news  that  came 
in  on  all  sides  was  most  dis- 
couraging. The  whole  island 
had  risen  at  the  call  of  Paoli. 
A  council  of  war  was  held  on 
the  5th  June  at  Bastia,  and  it  was  decided  that  Salicetti  and  Delcher  should 
return  to  France  and  appeal  for  assistance,  carrying  with  them  a  long,  badly- 
spelt  tirade  against  Paoli  from  the  pen  of  Bonaparte,  together  with  a  scheme 
drawn  out  for  the  reconquest  of  his  native  island  by  French  arms — a  reconquest 
which  would  entail,  as  he  well  knew,  the  erection  of  the  guillotine  in  every 
town,  and  the  deluging  of  his  native  soil  with  the  blood,  not  only  of  those  who 
fought  for  their  independence,  but  of  those  who  merely  desired  it,  of  women, 
and  old  men  and  boys.  And  his  design  and  hope  was  to  be  given  the 
command  of  the  foreign  troops — cut-throats  from  Marseilles  perhaps — who 
were  to  reduce  Corsica  to  subjection. 

Having  sent  off  his  memorial  as  to  the  b.est  means  for  reconquering  his  native 
island,  Bonaparte  thought  it  high  time  to  leave  the  land  which  was  burning 
under  his  feet,  and  place  himself  near  those  who  might  entrust  to  him  the 
execution  of  his  plans. 


ARRIVAL   OF   THE    BONAPARTE    FAMILY    IN    FRANCE. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


THE    CAMPAIGN   AGAINST    PAOLI  67 

On  the  I  ith  June,  1793,  with  his  mother  and  brothers  and  sisters,  he  quitted 
his  native  land. 

"  What  a  flight  it  was,"  says  Captain  Bingham.  "  One  exile  became 
Emperor  of  France  and  King  of  Italy ;  another  reigned  first  at  Naples,  then  at 
Madrid ;  Lucien  became  Prince  of  Canino ;  Louis  sat  on  the  throne  of 
Holland  ;  Marianne  became  Grand  Duchess  of  Tuscany ;  Pauline,  a  Princess  ; 
and  Abbe  Fesch,  a  Cardinal."*  Of  the  children  left  behind,  Caroline  was 
destined  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  Naples,  and  Jerome  was  the  future  King 
of  Westphalia. 

When  Napoleon  landed  at  Toulon,  a  revolution  had  taken  place  within  him 
of  a  very  different  nature  from  that  which  had  broken  out  in  Corsica. 

No  noble  ideal  remained  before  his  eyes.  He  had  nothing  to  look  to, 
nothing  for  which  to  work,  to  scheme,  but  his  own  advancement. 

He  had  dissociated  himself  from  honest  men,  and  had  linked  his  fortunes 
with  such  creatures  as  Salicetti  and  the  Arenas,  whom  he  despised,  and  whom 
he  could  never  forgive  for  having  been  forced  into  association  with  himself. 
Such  a  tie  brought  with  it  a  moral  taint. 

He  had  seen  what  those  were  in  Paris  who  held  the  power,  what  the  force 
was  which  drove  on  France  from  one  horror  to  another.  He  had  lost  all 
sympathy  with  the  Revolution.  And  he  had  united  with  the  agents  of  this 
destructive  force  against  his  country,  against  the  man  whom  he  had  adored,  and 
in  boyish  generosity  had  longed  to  imitate.  An  idol  may  forfeit  all  right 
to  be  worshipped.  It  may  prove  like  Serapis,  to  be  full  of  rottenness.  But  this 
was  not  the  case  with  Paoli.  From  this  moment  he  had  lost  his  faith  in  man, 
because  he  had  forfeited  his  own  self-respect. 

The  bitterness  with  which  he  pursued  Salicetti  in  after  times,  and  brought 
Arena  to  death  on  a  false  charge,  was  due  to  this  galling  consciousness  that  in 
throwing  himself  into  their  arms  he  had  been  untrue  to  his  better  self 

We  see  in  the  episode  of  his  last  venture  in  Corsica  the  change  that  was 
taking  place  in  Bonaparte.  He  put  off  his  boyish  enthusiasm,  and  put  on  the 
calculating  cunning  of  an  old  man.  Noble  aims  expired  in  his  soul,  which 
thenceforth  was  filled  with  nothing  higher  than  self-seeking. 

*  Letters  and  Despatches  of  the  First  Napoleon.     London,  1884,  i.  30. 


XIII 
LE    SOUPER    DE    BEAUCAIRE 

(June  26— July  29,  1793) 

^nr^HE  little  party,  when  it  landed  on  the  quay  at  Toulon,  was  received  with 
-■-  enthusiasm.  They  were  regarded  as  martyrs  to  the  cause  of  Liberty,  and 
the  Convention  decreed  that  they  should  be  indemnified  for  their  losses,  at  the 
public  cost.  They  took  good  care  to  exaggerate  these  losses,  and  represent 
themselves  as  the  wealthiest  persons  in  all  Corsica;*  accordingly  they  were 
placed  beyond  the  reach  of  absolute  want.  Madame  Bonaparte  received 
seventy-five  francs  per  month,  and  forty-five  for  each  of  the  children  under  the 
age  of  fifteen,  and  a  lump  sum  of  fifty  francs  for  each  recipient,  to  enable  her  to 
start  housekeeping.  As  to  those  above  the  age  of  fifteen,  they  were  left  to  shift 
for  themselves.  But  this  was  not  sufficient  to  support  all.  Napoleon  was  looked 
on  with  mistrust  from  his  erratic  conduct,  as  a  captain  of  artillery  who  did  not 
go  to  his  regiment,  and  his  brothers  felt  no  inclination  to  enter  the  army.  Their 
ambition  was  to  have  a  finger  in  the  contracting  for,  or  administration  of,  the 
military  supplies  ;  a  business  that  allowed  of  much  peculation,  and  the  rapid 
accumulation  of  wealth.  But  there  were  too  many  equally  ambitious  to  engage 
in  this  course,  for  them  readily  and  at  once  to  find  suitable  places,  and  much 
time  was  expended  in  running  about  and  getting  nothing. 

Salicetti  had  provided  Napoleon  with  one  of  those  convenient  and  easily- 
obtainable  certificates  that  he  employed  so  frequently,  and  this  certificate  was  ta 
the  effect  that  the  Deputy  had  retained  Bonaparte  in  the  island  on  urgent 
business,  and  that  it  was  through  his  orders  that  he  had  not  returned  to  his  post 
of  duty  at  the  expiration  of  his  furlough.  Of  course,  Salicetti  had  no  legal 
right  to  detain  him,  and,  in  point  of  fact,  had  not  done  so  ;  but,  at  this  period, 
the  army  had  gone  through  complete  reorganisation,  resulting  in  considerable 
displacement  of  officers,  changes  in  the  regiments,  and  general  confusion  in  the 
War  Department ;  so  that  there  was  little  chance  of  Napoleon  being  called  to- 
account  for  his  absence ;  and  a  turbulent  and  influential  Deputy,  such  as  Sali- 
cetti, was  dangerous  to  cross ;  consequently,  although  the  superior  officers  might 

*  "  Cette  famille,  composee  de  dix  personnes  .  .  .  jouissent  d'une  fortune  le  plus  considerable  du* 
departement" — the  statement  of  the  friendly  procureur  syndic  of  Ajaccio.  This  was  more  than  ark 
exaggeration.     It  was  untrue.     The  document  is  in  the  Memoir es  de  Joseph^  i.  52. 

68 


LE    SOUPER    DE    BEAUCAIRE  69 

look  askance  at  the  captain  who  regularly  drew  his  pay  and  neglected  his 
•duties,  yet  they  did  not  venture  to  court-martial  him  as  he  deserved. 

The  Jacobins  were  supreme  at  Paris,  and  throughout  France.  On  the  loth 
March,  the  Revolutionarv  Tribunal  had  been  created,  freed  from  all  leg-al 
restraint,  that  it  might  do  its  work  of  butchery  more  expeditiously. 

On  the  6th  April,  came  the  call  into  existence  of  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety.  The  destruction  of  the  Girondins  was  resolved  on,  and  the  guillotine 
was  put  in  requisition  on  their  behalf  Then  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety 
was  invested  with  despotic  power  over  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  all  Frenchmen  ;. 
and  the  true  reign  of  terror  began. 

In  face  of  the  anarchy  and  danger  to  all  property,  and  the  certainty  that  no 
life  was  secure,  all  who  had  anything  to  lose,  and  any  cause  to  apprehend 
accusation,  resolved  on  resistance.  Throughout  the  South  this  feeling  was 
strong,  but  those  who  were  prepared  and  willing  to  resist  had  no  leaders,  no 
rallying  points,  no  concerted  plan  of  operations ;  they  were  not  agreed  as  to 
what  form  of  government  was  wanted.  The  consequence  was  that  opposition 
failed  ;  the  Departments  returned  to  submission,  one  by  one,  and  the  only 
serious  head  made  was  at  Lyons,  Avignon,  Marseilles,  and  Toulon. 

The  Revolutionary  Committees  were  declared  the  judges  of  the  persons 
liable  to  arrest ;  there  was  hardly  a  village  without  such  a  committee,  and  every 
member  of  one  received  from  government  three  (rsincs  per  diem.  Consequently, 
the  idle  and  the  needy  were  enlisted  on  the  side  of  the  Terrorists,  against  the 
industrious  and  the  respectable. 

An  army  was  assembled  to  bring  into  submission  and  terribly  chastise  the 
few  cities  that  resisted  the  Convention. 

Napoleon  was  engaged  in  the  reduction  of  Avignon,  It  has  been  pretended 
that  his  management  of  the  artillery  assured  the  capture  of  the  town,  but  this 
is  one  of  the  fables  of  later  growth ;  there  is  no  evidence  that  such  was  the 
case.  Salicetti,  Ricord,  and  Robespierre  the  younger,  arrived  on  the  scene 
of  action,  and,  through  the  Corsican  deputy,  Bonaparte  obtained  introduction 
to  the  other  two. 

From  Avignon,  on  the  28th  July,  Napoleon  went  to  Beaucaire. 

This  is  a  town  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhone,  opposite  the  ancient  and 
venerable  Tarascon.  It  owes  both  its  importance  and  life  to  the  fact  that  it 
is  situated  at  the  mouth  of  the  Canal  of  Beaucaire,  which  joins  the  Canal  du 
Midi,  and  thus  connects  the  Rhone  and  the  Garonne.  It  is  dominated  by  an 
extensive  castle,  and  contains  some  picturesque  houses  and  churches.  It  may 
be  divided  into  the  mediaeval  town  and  the  modern ;  the  latter  the  focus  of  the 
great  fair  that  takes  place  every  year,  and  which  galvanises  the  otherwise 
sleepy  town  into  ephemeral  life.  This  fair  is  to  Provence  what  that  of 
Novgorod  is  to  Russia,  a  meeting-place  of  the  merchants  of  East  and  West, 
the  place  of  exchange  of  the  produce  and  manufactures  of  the  centre  of 
France  and  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  with  those  of  Italy  and  the  alluvial 
banks  of  the  Gulf  of  Lyons. 

Napoleon,  perhaps,  met  at  Beaucaire,  in  the  little  inn  where  he  stayed,  some 


70 


THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


merchants  from  the  South,  and  had  with  them  an  argument  or  altercation.  On 
this  he  based  a  dialogue,  which  he  entitled  Le  Souper  de  Beaucaire,  in  which 
are  represented  a  citizen  of  Nimes,  a  manufacturer  of  Montpellier,  a  native  of 
Marseilles,  and  a  soldier — himself — discussing  the  political  condition  of  affairs 
that  then  agitated  the  South. 

The  pamphlet  is  addressed  to  the  reactionaries  of  Marseilles.  It  had, 
therefore,  a  political  aim,  and  was  written  to  advise  submission  to  the  party 
in  power,  and  dissuade  from  all  attempt  at  opposition.  Nevertheless,  Napoleon 
was  cautious  not  to  so  commit  himself  as  to  allow  a  chance  of  this  production 


LE   SOUI'ER    DE    BEAUCAIRE. 
From  a  painting  by  Leconte  de  Noiiy. 

being  used  against  him  in  the  event — very  improbable — of  the  reactionaries 
and  moderates  getting  the  upper  hand.  But  it  is  more  than  that.  It  is  a  work 
of  self-justification.  The  author  exposes  the  reasons  which  had  in  fact  induced 
him,  in  Corsica,  to  throw  in  his  lot  with  the  Jacobins  against  Paoli  and  the 
Independents.  For  in  Provence  the  same  thing  was  taking  place  which  had 
begun  in  Corsica.  He  may  have  felt  some  twinges  of  conscience  which  needed 
to  be  allayed,  and  he  sought  in  this  pamphlet  not  so  much  to  convince  the 
Marseillais  as  to  satisfy  himself 

"  In  the  Souper  de  Beaucaire^'  says  Lanfrey,  "  one  sees  his  ideas  expressed 
in  a  style  remarkable  only  for  its  italicisms,  but  which  becomes  singularly 
decided  and  precise  when  dealing  with  military  matters.     One  discerns  in  it, 


LE    SOUPER    DE    BEAUCAIRE  71 

under  an  apparent  freedom  of  expression,  great  caution,  which  allows  of  no 
handle  against  the  author,  even  in  the  mention  of  ev^ents  just  passed. 

"  The  argument  on  which  the  author  leans  with  greatest  weight  is  that 
which  had  most  deeply  impressed  his  own  mind,  and  shows  clearly  what  had 
decided  for  him  the  question  between  the  Mountain  and  the  Gironde" — and,  we 
may  add,  between  Paoli  and  the  Convention.  "  This  was  success.  The  argument 
employed  is  no  other  than  that  eternal  sophism,  by  the  assistance  of  which  every 
act  of  violence  has  been  justified  by  investing  it  with  the  plea  that  it  is  done  in 
a  patriotic  cause." 

In  an  argument  such  as  that  conducted  at  Beaucaire,  over  principles  which 
had  ranged  men  in  arms  against  each  other,  it  is  really  startling  to  see  how 
entirely  the  question  of  principle  is  set  aside,  and  the  sole  motive  for  taking 
action  is — probability  of  success.  That  side  is  right,  or  rather — for  right  is 
ignored — is  to  be  adhered  to  which  has  the  great  certainty  of  success  on  its 
side.  Inevitable  fate  is  the  supreme  law  to  which  all  must  bow,  in  the  world  of 
action,  and,  by  implication,  in  the  moral  sphere  as  well.  The  sanction  of  an 
act  is  its  success. 

We  can  now  understand  why  Bonaparte  made  such  a  complete  change  of 
face  in  Corsica.  He  did  not  ask  whether  the  islanders  were  right  in  attempting 
to  establish  their  independence ;  the  question  of  right  had  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
But  the  determining  question  was — Were  they  likely  to  succeed  ? 

Bonaparte  had,  in  the  background  of  his  conscience,  at  the  base  of  his  con- 
ceptions, the  idea  of  God — but  how  God  worked  and  revealed  Himself  was  not 
clear  to  him.  The  rights  of  man  proceeded  from  the  Maker  of  man.  But  his 
confidence  in  these  rights  was  gone.  Power,  not  right,  was  the  manifestation 
of  God  in  the  world.  Therefore  the  strongest  was  the  ruler  by  Divine  Right. 
This  theory,  thenceforth,  never  was  upset  in  him,  it  governed  him,  it  inspired 
his  actions  and  sanctified  them.  To  speak,  to  write  against  him  when  he  was 
the  manifestation  of  infinite  Power,  was  blasphemy ;  to  resist  him,  sacrilege. 
When,  in  after  years,  he  made  a  concordat  with  the  Papacy,  he  never  for  a 
moment  inquired,  even  thought  to  inquire,  whether  Catholicism  were  true,  he 
saw  it  was  a  power,  and  because  a  power,  he  respected  it^  as  of  divine  right  in 
the  world,  just  as  when  in  Egypt  he  respected  and  conformed  to  Moham- 
medanism. 

As  he  had  made  a  volte  face  in  his  conduct  with  respect  to  Corsica,  so 
had  he  made  a  moral  volte  face,  he  had  taken  up  as  a  principle  of  action 
that  doctrine  which  hitherto  he  had  combated.  When  Clovis  stepped  into 
the  baptismal  water,  S.  Remigius  thus  addressed  him,  "  Bow  thy  head, 
Sicambrian  ;  adore  what  thou  hast  burned ;  burn  what  thou  hast  adored." 
Such  was  the  transformation  effected  in  the  disposition  of  Napoleon,  under 
the  teaching  of  such  creatures  as  Salicetti  and  Arena,  but  most  of  all  of  his 
own  mind. 

In  the  Souper  de  Beaucaire  the  doctrine  is  not  enunciated  baldly,  but  it 
underlies  the  whole  argument ;  and  the  same  continued  to  govern  his  conduct 
throughout  his  marvellous  career. 

The  question  naturally  arises  at  this  point  in  the  history  of  Napoleon,  Had 


72  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

he  at  this  time  such  a  strong  confidence  in  his  abilities,  as  to  foresee  what  he 
would  do,  when  the  opportunity  came?  On  this  it  is  safe  to  trust  his  own 
words.  At  S.  Helena  he  said  :  "  Vendemiaire  et  Montenotte  ne  me  porterent 
pas  encore  a  me  croire  un  homme  superieur ;  ce  n'est  qu'apres  Lodi  qu'il  me 
vint  dans  I'idee  que  je  pouvais  bien  devenir,  apres  tout,  un  acteur  decisif 
sur  notre  scene  politique.  Alors  naquit  la  premiere  etincelle  de  la  haute 
ambition." 


XIV 
TOULON 

(September,  1793— March,  1794) 

"DONAPARTE  was  at  Nice  in  the  middle  of  June,  1793;  he  rejoined  his 
-*^  regiment,  a  portion  of  which  was  quartered  on  the  frontiers  of  Italy,  and 
he  was  given  the  supervision  of  the  batteries  along  the  coast,  now  rendered 
necessary  for  the  protection  of  France  against  the  English  fleet  stationed  in  the 
Mediterranean.  He  had,  however,  gone  to  Avignon  to  assist  in  the  siege  there, 
and  shortly  after  he  showed  his  Souper  de  Beaucaire  to  Salicetti,  Gasparin,  and 
the  other  Deputies  and  Commissioners  who  were  with  the  army  sent  to  reduce 
the  insurrection  in  Provence.  They  were  so  pleased  with  it,  that  they  ordered 
its  publication  at  the  cost  of  the  Treasury.  It  was  issued  in  August,  by 
Tournal,  of  Avignon.  If  we  may  trust  Barras,  the  money  to  pay  for  the  print- 
ing was  sent  to  Bonaparte,  who  pocketed  it ;  and  the  widow  of  the  publisher 
had  to  apply  to  have  the  debt  discharged  after  Napoleon  was  Emperor.* 

Owing  to  the  favour  of  Gasparin  and  Salicetti,  berths  were  now  found  for 
Napoleon's  brothers.  Uncle  Fesch  threw  off  his  cassock,  and  was  attached  to 
the  Commissariat  of  the  army  of  the  Alps ;  Lucien  obtained  the  same  favour, 
and  was  planted  at  S.  Maximin.  For  Joseph  a  still  better  place  was  found  ;  he 
was  appointed  War  Commissioner  of  the  First  Class  at  Marseilles.  By  law 
none  could  be  thus  appointed  unless  in  the  army,  and  not  below  the  rank  of 
Lieutenant-Colonel.  But  this  was  a  small  difficulty  to  a  family  that  manu- 
factured false  certificates  to  suit  its  convenience.  Napoleon  passed  on  his 
certificate  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  in  the  Corsican  Volunteers  to  Joseph,  and 
thereby  got  the  situation  for  his  brother.  Owing  to  the  mystification  about 
their  births,  and  both  having  been  baptised  under  the  name  of  Nabulone,  this 
was  easily  done.^l" 

Ten  years  later,  when  Napoleon  desired  to  have  his  brother  Joseph  appointed 
Colonel,  he  had  the  following  certificate  drawn  up,  relative  to  his  services. 

*  Memoirs  of  Barras  (Eng.  ed.),  1895,  i.  143. 

t  The  appointment  was  in  these  terms  :  *'  The  representatives  of  the  people  .  .  .  seeing  the  circum- 
stances and  necessities  of  the  army  destined  to  reduce  the  rebels  of  the  South  i^du  viidy — sic),  order  that 
Joseph  Buonaparte,  now  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  Infantry,  shall  be  appointed  Commissary  of  War  of  the 
First  Class."  Salicetti,  who  signed  this,  knew  the  truth  of  the  matter,  but  he  wished  to  assist  the 
Bonapartes. 

11 


74  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

"  Pupil  of  Artillery  in  1768. 
Officer  on  Staff  in  1792. 
Adjutant  of  Battalion  in  1793. 

Member  of  the  Legislative  Corps  in  the  year  V.  (1796.) 
Colonel  of  the  4th  Regiment  of  the  Line. 

Engaged  in  the  Campaigns  of  1793  and   1794,  and  slightly  wounded 
at  the  Siege  of  Toulon." 

Nearly  every  statement  was  false.  It  was  Napoleon,  and  not  Joseph,  who 
had  been  a  pupil  of  the  Artillery,  and  the  latter  had  never  been  adjutant  at  all, 
not  having  been  in  the  army.  In  1792  he  was  in  the  oil  trade ;  after  that  secre- 
tary to  Salicetti.  He  never  showed  his  nose  at  the  siege  of  Toulon,  and  it  was 
Napoleon,  not  he,  who  was  there  slightly  wounded.  Had  any  inquiry  been 
made  into  the  matter,  the  baptismal  certificates,  or  rather  false  copies  of  them, 
were  ready  to  hand,  to  deceive  the  examiners. 

At  Marseilles  Joseph  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  soap-boiler  Clary ; 
indeed,  he  and  Napoleon  were  billeted  on  him,  on  their  first  official  visit  to 
Marseilles.  Clary  had  two  daughters,  Julie  and  Desiree,  both  destined  to 
be  Queens,  one  to  marry  Joseph  Bonaparte,  the  other  to  be  the  wife  of 
Bernadotte. 

A  mixed  multitude  of  soldiers  and  revolutionary  cut-throats,  under  the 
command  of  the  painter  Carteaux,  after  having  dyed  their  hands  in  the  blood 
of  six  thousand  of  their  countrymen,  whom  they  had  massacred  at  Lyons 
(Oct.  9,  1793),  invested  Toulon,  which  had  shut  its  gates  against  the  Revolu- 
tionary army,  and  had  thrown  open  its  port  to  the  English.  The  town  was 
crowded  with  refugees  from  Marseilles  and  Lyons,  with  Constitutionals, 
Moderates,  Reactionaries,  Royalists,  and  its  bastions  were  occupied  by  a  mixed 
multitude  of  defenders,  Sardinians,  Spaniards,  French,  and  English,  united  in 
nothing  save  in  common  hatred  of  the  monsters  who  trampled  France  under 
their  feet. 

The  investing  army  was  divided  into  two  corps,  separated  by  a  rocky  ridge 
the  Faron.  On  the  west  was  the  ravine  of  S.  Antoine ;  further  west  that  of 
Ollioules,  where  Carteaux  established  his  headquarters.  The  investing  army 
was  composed  in  part  of  troops  detached  from  the  Army  of  Italy,  in  large 
measure  of  volunteers  who  had  been  set.  at  liberty  by  the  taking  of  Lyons,  and 
it  was  further  swelled  with  the  Marseillais  ruffians,  animated  by  hopes  of 
murder  and  plunder  in  the  city  which  they  were  confident  must  speedily 
surrender. 

Carteaux,  the  Commander-in-Chief,  was  ignorant  of  the  first  principles  of 
military  science,  and  he  erected  batteries  to  shell  the  English  fleet,  with  care  to 
place  them  beyond  the  reach  of  the  guns  of  the  enemy,  but  they  proved  to  be 
too  distant  to  do  any  injury.* 

*  "  Carteaux  had  a  pretentious  wife  who  liked  to  have  a  finger  in  matters  of  administration,  not  to 
say  of  war.  According  to  not  a  few  military  men  ...  it  was  Madame  Carteaux  who  drew  up  the  orders 
of  the  day,  and  went  so  far,  either  out  of  sheer  impudence  or  iia'ivet^y  as  to  sign  them  '  Femme 
Carteaux.'" — Barras,  J/^w^zW,  i.  143. 


^A^^'y^  gcu'uyC^  cu^^-'-f'^-    t^/*^^ 


i/xV^i^  y^riA^-^  c/oimaJ^ 

LETTER   FROM   BONAPARTE,    COMMANDANT   OF  ARTILLERY,    TO  GENERAL  CARTEAUX. 


76  THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  siege  had  begun  in  September;  it  dragged  on  through  October. 
Behind  and  above  the  commanding  General  stood  the  Commissioners  of  the 
Convention,  Salicetti,  Albitte,  Barras,  and  Gasparin,  all  as  ignorant  of  the  art 
of  warfare  as  the  General  ex-painter.  There  was  organisation  neither  in  the 
host  nor  in  the  commissariat.  The  most  necessary  materials  of  war  were 
deficient,  and  food  ran  short.  Every  man  had  his  plan  that  was  infallible,  and 
every  man  saw  that  the  plan  of  his  fellow  was  doomed  to  failure. 

In  the  midst  of  this  confusion,  Bonaparte  arrived  at  Toulon,  and  was  pre- 
sented by  Salicetti  to  Carteaux,  who  at  once  took  the  young  artillery  officer 
over  his  batteries,  and  was  much  incensed  when  Napoleon  pointed  out  the 
rudimentary  errors  he  had  committed. 

Whilst  Carteaux  was  wasting  ammunition  by  firing  into  the  sea,  or  at  such 
a  distance  from  the  works  of  the  fortress  as  not  to  reach  them,  the  division 
of  Lapoype,  with  the  Commissioners  Barras  and  Freron  attending  to  its  move- 
ments, had  achieved  a  success  ;  it  had  attacked  and  captured  Mount  Faron,  but 
had  been  driven  from  it  again,  and  Lapoype  contented  himself  with  open- 
ing trenches  before  Fort  La  Malgue,  which  occupied  one  part  of  the  bay,  of 
which  L'Aiguillette  was  the  other.  The  capture  of  either  of  these  forts  would 
command  the  harbour. 

The  Commissioners,  satisfied  that  the  painter  was  incompetent  to  conduct 
a  siege,  dismissed  him,  and  appointed  Doppet,  a  doctor,  in  his  place.  He  was 
nominated  on  the  26th  September  ;  but,  as  he  proved  as  inefficient  as  the 
painter,  was  dismissed  after  a  month's  trial ;  and  Dugommier,  an  old  officer, 
was  then  placed  in  command  ;  then  on  the  25th  November  a  council  of  war  was 
held,  at  which  the  Representatives  Barras,  Ricord,  Robespierre  the  younger, 
Freron,  and  Salicetti  were  present.  Through  the  influence  of  the  Com- 
missioners, Bonaparte  had  already  been  invested  with  the  command  of  the 
artillery. 

A  commander-in-chief  was  placed  at  great  disadvantage,  as  he  was  obliged 
to  convince  the  Commissioners  of  the  advisability  of  a  measure  before  he  was 
allowed  to  adopt  it.  These  men  ordered  Dugommier  to  completely  invest  the 
town,  but  this  would  have  required  an  army  of  60,000  men,  and  that  at  his 
disposal  did  not  number  more  than  25,000.  If  he  extended  his  line,  he  left 
himself  open  to  have  it  attacked  and  broken  through  at  any  point.  Those 
officers  who  knew  anything  about  their  profession  saw  the  impossibility  of 
executing  the  order,  but  experience  told  them  how  dangerous  it  was  for  a 
general  to  dispute  the  plans  of  the  terrible  Committee.  They  knew,  more- 
over, that  if  they  failed  to  carry  out  measures,  which  their  common  sense  told 
them  were  impossible  of  fulfilment,  they  would  have  to  pay  for  it  with  their 
heads. 

Bonaparte  drew  up  a  memorial  expressing  his  views,  and  sent  it  to  the 
Minister  of  War,  and  in  a  second  Council  of  War  his  plans  were  approved,  and 
he  was  given  full  liberty  to  carry  them  into  execution. 

In  the  meantime  he  had  used  all  his  energies  to  bring  some  order  into  the 
management    of    supplies.     He    had    collected    from    Marseilles,    Lyons,   and 


TOULON 


77 


Grenoble,  the  cannons  and  other  munitions  of  war  that  were  indispensable, 
had  reorganised  all  the  services  with  incredible  activity,  and  had  obtained  such 
an  influence  over  all  with  whom  he  was  brought  into  contact,  that  they  regarded 
him  as  practically  the  director  of  all  the  operations. 

In  compliance  with  the  instructions  of  Napoleon,  the  whole  force  of  the 
besiegers  was  directed  against  the  English  redoubt  erected  by  Lord  Mulgrave, 
who  was  in  command  of  the  garrison,  on  the  Aiguillette,  and,  after  a  long 
cannonade,  an  attempt  to  carry  it  by  assault  was  made  on  the  morning  of 


NAPOLEON   AT   THE    BATTERY. 
From  a  water-colour  drawing  of  the  period. 


December  17th.  The  troops  of  the  Convention  were  driven  back,  and  Dugom- 
mier,  who  headed  the  attempt,  gave  over  all  for  lost.  But  fresh  troops  were 
rapidly  brought  up  in  support,  another  onslaught  was  attempted,  and  succeeded 
in  overpowering  the  Spanish  soldiers,  to  whom  a  portion  of  the  line  was  en- 
trusted, whereupon  the  assailants  broke  in,  turned  the  flank  of  the  English 
detachment,  and  cut  down  three  hundred  of  them. 

The  possession  of  this  fort  rendered  the  further  maintenance  of  the  exterior 
defences  of  Toulon  impracticable.  Its  eflect  was  at  once  recognised  by  the 
English  commander,  and  during  the  night. the  whole  of  the  allied  troops  were 
withdrawn  from  the  promontory  into  the  city. 


78  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Meanwhile  another  attack  had  been  made,  under  the  direction  of  Napoleon, 
on  the  rocky  heights  of  Faron,  which  were  carried,  and  the  mountain  was 
occupied  by  the  Republicans,  who  hoisted  the  tricolor  flag. 

The  garrison  still  consisted  of  above  ten  thousand  men,  and  the  fortifications 
of  the  town  itself  were  as  yet  uninjured ;  but  the  harbour  was  commanded  and 
swept  by  the  guns  of  the  Republican  army  from  I'Aiguillette  and  Faron.  Sir 
Samuel  Hood,  in  command  of  the  English  squadron,  strongly  urged  the 
necessity  of  making  an  attempt  to  recover  the  points  that  had  been  lost ;  but  he 
was  overruled,  and  it  was  resolved  to  evacuate  the  place. 

When  the  citizens  of  Toulon  became  aware  of  this  decision  they  were  filled 
with  dismay.  They  knew  but  too  well  what  fate  was  in  store  for  them  if  left  to 
the  hands  of  their  remorseless  fellow-countrymen.  Accordingly  the  quays  were 
crowded  with  terror-stricken  men  and  women  entreating  to  be  carried  on  board, 
whilst  already  the  shot  from  Napoleon's  batteries  tore  lanes  among  them,  or  his 
shells  exploded  in  their  midst.  With  difficulty,  as  many  as  could  be  accommo- 
dated were  placed  in  boats  and  conveyed  to  the  ships,  of  which  there  were 
several  in  the  harbour  that  had  belonged  to  the  French.  Fourteen  thousand 
were  thus  rescued  ;  but  Napoleon  directed  shot  and  shell  among  the  boats,  sink- 
ing some,  and  drowning  the  unhappy  and  innocent  persons  who  were  flying 
from  their  homes. 

The  prisoners  now  broke  their  chains  and  added  to  the  horror,  as  they  burst 
into  the  deserted  houses,  robbing  and  firing  and  murdering  where  resistance  was 
offered.  Next  day,  the  troops  of  the  Convention  entered  the  town.  During 
the  ensuing  days  some  hundreds  of  the  inhabitants  who  had  not  escaped  were 
swept  together  into  an  open  place,  and  without  any  form  of  trial  were  shot. 
Salicetti  wrote  exultingly :  "  The  town  is  on  fire,  and  offers  a  hideous  spectacle ; 
most  of  the  inhabitants  have  escaped.  Those  who  remain  will  serve  to  appease 
the  manes  of  our  brave  brothers  who  fought  with  such  valour."*  Fouche^ 
Napoleon's  future  Head  of  Police,  who  had  hastened  to  Toulon  from  Lyons, 
wrote  to  CoUot  d'Herbois  in  Paris,  "  Farewell,  my  friend.  Tears  of  joy  stream 
over  my  cheeks,  and  flood  my  soul.  We  have  but  one  way  in  which  to  celebrate 
our  victory.  We  have  this  evening  sent  213  rebels  under  the  fire  of  our  light- 
ning." "  We  must  guillotine  others,"  said  Barras,  "  to  save  ourselves  from  being 
guillotined."  In  addition  to  these,  by  mistake,  the  entering  soldiers  massacred 
two  hundred  Jacobins,  who  advanced  to  welcome  their  approach.  Executions 
went  on  for  several  days,  and  numbers  of  the  hapless  remnant  perished  by 
sword  or  guillotine.  But  even  this  did  not  satisfy  the  Convention.  On  the 
motion  of  Barriere,  it  was  decreed  that  the  name  of  Toulon  should  be  blotted 
out,  and  a  Commission,  consisting  of  Barras,  Freron,  and  the  younger  Robes- 
pierre, was  ordered  to  continue  the  slaughter.  Such  as  were  able  bought  their 
lives.  One  old  merchant  of  eighty-four  offered  all  his  wealth,  save  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  livres,  but  the  judge,  coveting  the  whole,  sent  him  to  the  scaffold, 
and  confiscated  his  entire  property. 

*  Moniteur,  Nivose  5,  an.  2  (Dec.  25,  1793),  a  Christmas  Day  salutation  from  those  who  had 
dethroned  God. 


TOULON 


79 


"When  I  beheld  this  old  man  executed,"  said  Napoleon,  long  after  at  S. 
Helena,  "  I  felt  as  if  the  end  of  the  world  were  at  hand." 

According  to  Marmont,  Napoleon  was  averse  to  this  butchery,  and  en- 
deavoured to  save  some  of  those  accused.  This  is  possible  enough.  He  was 
not  bloodthirsty ;  he  disliked  useless  slaughter,  and  so  long  as  the  end  were 
attained,  was  content  to  be  generous,  and  inclined  to  mercy.  But  he  had  joined 
brotherhood  with  monsters,  he  had  forwarded  their  work,  and  could  not  escape 
responsibility  for  their  acts.     In  his  Souper  de  Beaucaire,  he  had  expressed  with 


THE    SIEGE    OF   TOULON. 
From  a  drawing  by  Job. 


remarkable  decision  his  repugnance  to  the  system  of  butchery  practised  by  the 
Convention,  and  then  being  carried  out  to  an  appalling  extent  in  Provence. 

That  his  heart  was  already  seared,  we  may  judge  from  an  anecdote  given  by 
Mme.  Bourrienne,  which  her  husband  extracted  from  her  notes  : — 

"One  day,  after  our  second  return  from  Germany,  which  was  in  May,  1795, 
we  met  Bonaparte.  I  recollect  that  a  {q\y  days  after,  he  gave  us  one  of  those 
specimens  of  savage  hilarity,  which  I  greatly  disliked,  and  which  prepossessed 
me  against  him.  He  was  telling  us  that,  being  before  Toulon,  when  he  com- 
manded the  Artillery,  one  of  his  officers  was  visited  by  his  wife,  to  whom  he 
had  been  but  a  short  time  married,  and  whom  he  tenderly  loved.  A  few  days 
after,  orders  were  given  for  another  attack  upon  the  town,  in  which  this  officer 
^was  to  be  engaged.     His  wife  came  to  Bonaparte,  and  with  tears  entreated  that 


8o  THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

he  would  dispense  with  her  husband's  services  that  day.  The  general  was 
inexorable,  as  he  himself  told  us,  with  a  sort  of  savage  exultation.  The 
moment  for  the  attack  arrived,  and  the  officer,  though  a  very  brave  man,  as 
Bonaparte  himself  assured  us,  felt  a  presentiment  of  his  approaching  death. 
He  turned  pale  and  trembled.  He  was  stationed  beside  the  general,  and  during 
an  interval,  when  the  firing  from  the  town  was  very  heavy,  Bonaparte  called  out 
to  him,  '  Take  care,  there  is  a  shell  coming  ! '  The  officer  instead  of  moving  to 
one  side,  stooped  down,  and  was  literally  severed  in  two.  Bonaparte  laughed 
loudly  while  he  described  the  event  with  horrible  minuteness."* 

Bonaparte  acted  in  accordance  with  his  duty  in  not  allowing  himself  to 
be  swayed  by  the  tears  of  the  wife,  but  this  does  not  excuse  the  manner  in 
which  he  related  the  incident.  Napoleon  was  not,  he  never  was,  cruel,  but  he 
was  callous. 

During  the  siege  of  Toulon,  Barras  made  acquaintance  with  the  young 
engineer  captain.  He  found  him  with  a  bundle  of  his  Souper  de  Beaucaire 
under  his  arm,  distributing  copies  right  and  left  among  the  officers  and  men. 
Barras  says  : — 

"  I  was  struck  with  his  activity  from  the  time  we  first  came  together,  while 
his  attention  to  his  military  duties  impressed  me  favourably.  Friendships  are 
quickly  formed  in  a  life  of  dangers  shared  together,  hence  I  lost  no  time  in 
granting  all  the  young  Corsican's  requests,  both  in  matters  personal,  and  those 
important  to  the  service.  .  .  .  Soon  admitted  to  my  table,  he  was  always  placed 
at  my  side.  The  world  in  general  is  inclined  to  kindliness,  even  to  a  certain 
admiration,  towards  a  man  of  frail  physique,  who  displays  more  strength  than 
Nature  seems  to  have  granted  him.  His  soul  appeared  superior  to  his  body. 
Independently  of  this,  the  real  reason — one  about  which  I  do  not  wish  to  make 
any  mystery — which  attracted  me  towards  this  young  artillery  lieutenant,  was 
this.  It  was  that  not  merely  had  he  the  merit  of  courageous  activity — that 
perpetual  motion  and  physical  agitation  which  began  in  that  little,  low-statured 
man  at  the  head,  and  extended  to  the  last  extremities ;  but  it  was  that  I  saw  in 
him  a  striking  resemblance  to  one  of  the  most  famous,  not  to  say  the  most 
famous,  of  the  Revolutionists  who  flitted  across  the  Revolutionary  stage — I 
mean  Marat."  f 

Barras  does  not  mean  that  there  was  likeness  in  face  and  figure,  but  that  the 
same  restless  activity,  combined  with  indomitable  resolution,  existed  in  both. 

When  Toulon  was  taken,  and  the  guillotine  was  at  work,  a  grand  dinner  was 
given  to  Generals  and  Representatives  of  the  People ;  the  Republicans  of  the 
town,  galley-slaves  included.;  Soldiers  and  patriots,  citizens  and  sans-culotteSy 
sat  down  together,  but  the  Commissioners  ordered  that  they  themselves  should 
be  regaled  at  a  table  apart  from  the  rabble. 

During  the  siege  of  Toulon  Napoleon  formed  another  friendship — one  that 

*  BOURRIENNE,  Mem.  i.  31.   . 

t  Barras,  Mem.  i.  146.  Though  referring  to  the  EngUsh  edition,  I  have  had  to  condense  and 
recast  the  translation,  which  is  not  of  the  best ;  but  Barras*  style  is  confused ;  in  literal  EngUsh  it  is 
simply  unintelligible. 

+  The  Commissioners  were  reported  to  have  asserted  that  these  were  "the  only  respectable  persons 
in  the  town." 


TOULON 


8i 


was  to  last  unimpaired  till  death.  Here  it  was  that  he  made  acquaintance  with 
Junot,  then  a  common  grenadier. 

During  a  heavy  cannonade,  Bonaparte,  having  occasion  to  dictate  a 
despatch,  called  out  for  someone  who  would  write  it,  his  own  hand  being 
illegible.  Junot  stepped  out  of  the  ranks,  and  whilst  penning  the  despatch, 
a  shot  struck  the  ground  close  to  his  side  and  covered  both  with  dust. 

"  This  is  fortunate,  sir,"  observed  the  young  grenadier,  laughing,  "  I  was  in 
want  of  sand." 


THE   YOUNG   ARTILLERY   OFFICER. 
From  an  ideal  portrait  attributed  to  Prud'hon. 


"  You  are  a  fine  fellow,"  said  Bonaparte,  "  how  can  I  serve  you  ?  " 

"  Give  me  promotion  ;  I  will  not  disgrace  it." 

He  was  immediately  made  a  sergeant ;  not  long  afterwards  he  obtained  a 
commission  ;  in  1796  he  was  nominated  aide-de-camp  to  his  benefactor  who, 
under  the  Empire,  created  him  Duke  of  Abrantes.  This  fair-haired,  tender- 
hearted man,  risen  from  the  ranks,  married  Mademoiselle  Permon,  to  whom  we 
owe  such  precious  notices  of.  the  early  life  of  Napoleon. 

The  taking  of  Toulon  brought  Napoleon  into  notice  for  the  first  time. 
Dugommier,  in  a  letter,  reported :  "  This  young  officer  deserves  attention,  for, 

G 


82  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

into  whichever  side  he  may  throw  himself,  he  is  certainly  destined  to  bring- 
great  weight  into  the  balance." 

In  reward  for  his  services,  he  was  advanced  to  be  General  of  Brigade 
(i6th  F'eb.,  1794). 

In  order  to  obtain  his  appointment,  Napoleon  was  obliged  to  answer  a 
series  of  questions,  when  again  he  took  advantage  of  the  confusion  produced 
by  the  baptismal  registers.  He  now  represented  himself  as  aged  twenty-five, 
which  was  true  enough  if  he  were  born  at  Corte  in  1768,  but  not  true  if  born 
at  Ajaccio  in  1769.  He  put  himself  down  as  "not  noble,"  i.e.  not  of  gentle 
birth.  As  Corsica  was  in  full  insurrection,  he  knew  that  it  was  not  possible 
to  obtain  genuine  transcripts  of  the  registers,  nor,  in  the  general  hurry  of 
events,  had  those  in  the  military  department  time  to  examine  closely  into  this 
matter.  Moreover,  Louis,  though  aged  only  fifteen  years  and  five  months,  was 
appointed  by  Salicetti,  in  the  name  of  his  colleagues,  and  without  his  informing 
them  of  it,  to  be  Adjutant-Major  in  the  Artillery.  However,  the  Bureau  of 
the  Artillery  plucked  up  courage  to  refuse  their  ratification  of  this  extra- 
ordinary nomination,  and,  instead,  sent  the  boy  to  school  at  Chalons,  "  As  he 
could  not  be  eligible,  not  having  belonged  to  the  Artillery  corps."  A  little 
later  Louis,  like  his  brothers,  pretended  to  have  been  in  the  army,  and  to  have 
received  wounds.  But  that  was  a  family  habit,  and,  as  Jung  says,  the  Bona- 
partes  might  very  justly  have  taken  as  their  motto,  "Tout  pour  arriver,  ou  pour 
se  debarrasser  de  qui  vous  gene." 

Lucien,  who  was  at  S.  Maximin,  collecting  stores  for  the  army,  and  not 
forgetting  his  own  interest  in  so  doing,  called  himself  Lucien-Brutus  Bona- 
parte.* He  had  fallen  in  love  with  a  tavern-keeper's  daughter,  named  Christine 
Boyer,  whom  he  afterwards  married.  Uncle  Fesch,  the  future  cardinal,  was 
engaged  in  counting  sacks  of  flour  and  peas  for  transport  to  the  army  ;  Elise 
was  a  handsome  girl  of  seventeen ;  Pauline  was  nearly  fourteen,  Caroline 
approaching  twelve,  and  Jerome  was  nine  years  old. 

Napoleon,  having  charge  of  the  defences  of  the  south  coast,  very  narrowly 
escaped  with  his  life.  "  The  Tarpeian  rock  was  rather  dangerously  near  to  that 
of  the  Capitol." 

On  his  arrival  at  Marseilles,  his  keen  military  eye  saw  what  points  of 
vantage  required  fortifying  or  strengthening ;  and  he  wrote  to  the  Ministry 
on  January  4th,  1794,  to  say  that  he  was  about  to  reconstruct,  and  furnish  with 
cannon,  one  of  the  forts  which  dominated  the  town.  The  proposal  created 
a  ferment  in  Marseilles.  There  was  a  general  protest,  "  The  old  bastilles  are 
to  be  set  up  again,  and  cannon  levelled  against  the  citizens  of  the  Republic." 

Napoleon  and  General  Lapoype  were  summoned  to  answer  this  charge  at 
the  bar  of  the  Convention.  The  latter  alone  appeared,  the  former  ran  away  to 
Toulon,  and  hid  himself  behind  Salicetti,  who  undertook  his  defence.  Thanks 
to  his  protector,  the  storm  passed  over  his  head  without  injuring  him. 
1  Toulon  was  the  starting-point  of  Napoleon's  fortunes.  There  for  the  first 
time  he  had  an  opportunity  of  showing  that  he  was  possessed    of  militar}^ 

*  Barras  says  he  made  himself  marked  by  his  blasphemies  and  his  profanities. 


TOULON  83 

talent.  There  he  laid  himself  out  to  win  the  regard  of  men  likely  afterwards 
to  be  to  him  of  inestimable  service.  He  was  a  stranger,  a  foreigner  in  France, 
he  spoke  the  language  badly,  he  spelled  it  villainously.  He  had  no  relations 
by  blood  with  anyone  there,  except  his  own  family  that  lived  on  State  alms. 
He  had  his  career  to  make,  and  to  make  that  he  must  control  his  temper,  and 
condescend  to  obsequiousness  towards  those  in  power. 

Barras  tells  how  he  paid  court,  not  to  him  only,  with  profound  bows, 
"  almost  genuflexions,"  but  how  he  "  pursued  Mme.  Ricord  [wife  of  another 
Commissioner]  with  all  kinds  of  attentions,  picking  up  her  gloves,  handing  her 
her  fan,  holding  with  profound  respect  her  bridle  and  stirrup  when  she  mounted 
her  horse,  accompanying  her  in  her  walks  hat  in  hand."* 

But  what  imposed  more  than  this  obsequiousness  was  the  evidence  of 
ability  and  aptitude  in  the  young  officer.  The  Commissioners  were  men  whom 
it  was  worth  his  while  to  gain.  Robespierre  was  brother  of  the  man  shortly 
to  rise  to  dictatorship.  Freron  played  an  important  part  at  the  time  of  the 
Directory ;  Barras  was  afterwards  the  leading  spirit  in  the  coups  d'etat  of  the 
13th  Vendemiaire  and  of  the  i8th  Brumaire.  This  piece  of  "Jacobin  carrion," 
as  Macaulay  terms  him,  had  the  skill  to  gain  the  saddle  throughout  the  long 
tenure  of  the  Directory.  But  quite  as  important  to  Bonaparte  as  the  confidence 
of  these  political  leaders,  was  the  affection  and  respect  of  many  young  men 
of  energy  and  ability,  which  he  managed  to  win.  In  the  midst  of  the  general 
incompetence,  he  alone  seemed  to  know  what  he  was  about,  and  to  have  a 
clear  view  as  to  how  the  end  was  to  be  gained.  When  he  pleased.  Napoleon 
was  able  to  fascinate  those  with  whom  he  was  brought  in  contact ;  his  in- 
tellectual powers  imposed,  his  real  kindliness,  his  sweet  smile,  won  hearts.  And 
at  this  time  an  exile  from  his  home,  his  father's  house  burnt  by  an  angry  mob, 
his  name  branded  along  with  that  of  Buttafuoco,  he  craved  for  friendship,  and 
he  sought  it  by  exercising  self-control,  and  by  exerting  all  his  powers  of 
fascination.  The  young  men  whom  he  then  won  were  destined  to  rise  in  the 
army  to  high  stations,  and  to  form  about  him  a  constellation  of  very  zealous 
and  devoted  supporters. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  development  of  his  character,  the  siege  and 
capture  of  Toulon  also  had  its  importance.  He  had  occasion  at  length  to  shake 
off  the  despondency  that  had  weighed  on  him  from  childhood,  and  had  soured 
his  life.  But  the  siege  did  more  than  that.  Hitherto  he  had  blustered  about 
the  rights  of  man,  and  the  obligations  of  equality  and  freedom,  long  after  he 
had  ceased  to  believe  in  them.  Mere  "club-speeches,"  translated  into  action, 
meant  general  massacre. 

However  he  might  have  desired  the  welfare  of  his  native  isle,  he  had  been  a 
main  instrument  in  urging  it  to  revolt,  and  only  when  he  saw  that  revolt  would 
be  unsuccessful  did  he  turn  his  coat,  and  adopt  as  principle  that  submission  to 
France  against  which  he  had  hitherto  contended.  And  now  he  saw  plainly 
enough  that  there  was  every  probability  of  Corsica  sharing  the  fate  of  Toulon, 
Lyons,  Avignon,  and  Marseilles.     Nevertheless,  instead  of  turning  his  energies, 

*  Barras,  i.  161. 


84  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

his  abilities,  to  its  protection,  he  was  ready  to  devote  them  to  its  enemies,  with 
the  end  of  making  his  once  loved  island  into  a  butcher's  shambles. 

There  seem  to  have  been  three  periods  in  the  early  life  of  Napoleon,  and  he 
passed  from  one  to  another  on  a  gradual  but  steady  descent.  The  first  was  that 
of  honest  boyish  enthusiasms,  invigorated  by  personal  ambition  ;  this  latter 
gradually  became  the  predominant  factor,  and  it  exacted  of  him  the  sacrifice  of 
one  ennobling  enthusiasm  after  another.  First  Paoli,  then  his  profession,  lastly 
Corsica,  were  thrown  overboard.  Thus  lightened,  he  was  ready  for  the  second 
period,  in  which  ambition  was  degraded  into  self-seeking,  and  enthusiasm  into 
cant.  His  one  remaining  faith  was  in  the  power  of  reason,  his  only  veneration 
was  for  success ;  but,  like  all  idols  that  men  raise  in  the  place  of  higher  things, 
these  failed  him  when  put  to  the  test.  His  common  sense  told  him  that  the 
policy  of  the  Revolutionists  of  '93  was  unreasonable,  and  that  success  on  these 
lines  was  impossible;  but  his  opportunism  demanded  one  last  sacrifice,  and  that, 
perhaps,  the  bitterest  of  all.  He  had  already  been  false  to  what  he  knew  to  be 
right,  now  he  was  false  to  what  he  knew  to  be  reasonable. 

No  longer  believing  in  the  principles  of  the  Revolution,  he  put  his  sword  at 
the  service  of  the  extreme  faction ;  and  now  had  dyed  the  blade  in  innocent 
blood.  He  did  not  relish  wholesale  murder,  he  loathed  it :  he  looked  on  it  as 
worse  than  a  crime — a  mistake ;  but  the  masters  whom  he  served  exacted  it, 
and  made  of  him  their  minister.  After  he  had  cut  lanes  through  the  trembling 
fugitives  on  the  quay  with  his  shot,  and  sunk  boatloads  of  them,  women  and 
children,  with  his  shell,  as  they  attempted  to  creep  past  I'Aiguillette  to  escape 
to  the  English  transports ;  and  after  he  had  opened  the  gates  of  Toulon  to  the 
Commissioners  to  fusillade  and  guillotine  the  inhabitants,  and  stood  cringing, 
hat  in  hand  before  them,  asking  to  be  invited  to  sit  at  their  table,  then — his 
heart  had  gone  through  a  bath  that  had  hardened  it.  After  his  fight  with  the 
dragon,  Siegfried  dipped  himself  in  the  blood,  and  his  skin  became  as  horn, 
invulnerable  to  every  weapon,  and  now  the  blood  of  these  Toulon  victims  was 
run  over  the  conscience  of  the  young  officer,  and  wherever  it  went  turned  it 
dead. 

''  One  grows  quickly  old  on  battle-fields,"  he  said  somewhat  later.  He  might 
have  added — "  Conscience  becomes  quickly  numb  when  one  fights  for  principles 
in  which  one  has  no  belief." 


XV 
UNDER    ARREST 

(April  i — September  14,  1794) 

'IXT'HILST  the  Convention  was  engaged  in  putting  down  the  rising  in 
^^  Provence,  Lacombe-Saint- Michel  had  been  holding  out  in  Corsica, 
against  an  entire  island  in  revolt.  Bastia,  San  Fiorenzo,  and  Calvi  were  still 
occupied  by  French  troops;  but  on  February  17th,  1794,  the  English  took 
San  Fiorenzo,  and  then  presented  themselves  before  Bastia,  in  which  was 
General  Lacombe. 

The  Convention  had  no  fleet ;  what  it  had  possessed  at  Toulon  had  been 
burnt  or  carried  off  by  the  English.  Those  Corsicans  who  belonged  to  the 
French  party  complained  bitterly  that  their  compatriots — Salicetti,  Multedo, 
and  Bonaparte — were  doing  nothing  for  them.  This  was  not  altogether  true; 
but  until  the  rising  in  the  South  was  suppressed,  the  Convention  could  do 
nothing  for  the  island. 

Lacombe  escaped  from  Bastia  to  use  his  influence  to  hasten  relief.  On 
the  loth  of  May  he  was  at  Toulon.  There  he  met  Salicetti  and  Multedo. 
Lacombe  had  heard  in  Corsica  a  good  deal  concerning  Napoleon,  that  had 
greatly  modified  his  views  concerning  him.  He  had  learned  what  a  double 
game  he  had  played,  and  he  disbelieved  in  his  sincerity.  This  opinion  he 
communicated  to  Salicetti.  On  the  24th  May  a  small  expedition  departed, 
consisting  of  seven  vessels,  and  Lacombe  and  Salicetti  were  on  board  with 
four  thousand  men,  commanded  by  Cervoni  and  I.  Arena.  Owing  to  the  new- 
bred  mistrust  of  Napoleon,  he  was  excluded  from  having  any  share  in  the 
expedition.  But  on  that  very  day  Bastia  had  capitulated  to  Nelson,  and  the 
squadron  returned  in  discouragement  to  Toulon. 

On  the  1 8th  June,  at  a  National  Assembly  gathered  at  Corte,  the  Corsicans 
erected  their  island  into  a  kingdom,  with  a  liberal  and  popular  constitution, 
under  English  protection,  and  the  Viceroy  appointed  was  not  Paoli,  but  Sir 
Gilbert  Elliot.  Indeed,  Paoli  immediately  received  an  invitation — which  was, 
in  fact,  a  command — to  visit  England.  The  intention  of  Great  Britain  was 
to  make  her  power  predominant  in  Corsica,  and  to  render  it  a  base  of  opera- 
tions against  the  south  of  France.     On  the  ist  August  Calvi  fell. 

The  Convention  saw  that  the  recovery  of  the  island  would  be  a  difficult 
matter,  in  the  face  of  England,  with  her  preponderating  naval  power  in  the 

85 


86  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Mediterranean.  At  the  same  time,  it  was  well  aware  that  an  attempt  must  be 
made  to  dislodge  the  English. 

For  this  purpose  the  assistance  or  acquisition  of  Genoa  was  important. 
Genoa  was  a  Republic  in  name  only ;  it  was  governed  by  an  oligarchy,  and 
the  troops  were  mercenaries.  Genoa  equally  dreaded  offending  France  or  the 
Allies.  The  latter,  disregarding  her  neutrality,  passed  troops  to  the  frontier 
over  her  roads,  and  through  her  territories,  and  an  English  vessel  snatched 
a  French  frigate  from  out  of  the  bay  of  Genoa,  under  the  cannons  of  her  forts. 
This  afforded  the  Convention  all  excuse  necessary  for  complaint  and  threat. 
The  Genoese,  in  alarm,  hastened  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  France,  which 
Robespierre  saw  clearly  enough  would  not  be  of  long  duration.  The  charge 
d'affaires  at  Genoa,  Tilly,  was  instructed  to  observe  well  the  condition  of  the 
Republic,  and  the  means  whereby  its  territory  could  best  be  entered  and  the 
city  taken.  Accordingly,  on  the  22nd  December,  1793,  Tilly  sent  a  letter, 
in  which  he  entered  into  details  as  to  the  scheme  he  proposed  for  the  capture 
of  Genoa. 

The  Army  of  Italy,  and  that  of  the  Alps,  were  stretched  the  length  of  the 
frontier — from  the  Alps  of  Dauphine  to  the  Gulf  of  Lyons. 

On  the  1st  April,  1794,  Bonaparte  was  at  Nice;  he  had  received  orders 
from  General  Dumerbion,  commander  of  the  Army  of  Italy,  and  from 
Robespierre  the  younger,  Commissioner  with  it,  to  join  his  regiment  and  enter 
into  the  campaign,  which  was  to  open  on  the  4th.  The  army  consisted,  in 
all,  of  66,000  men  ;  but  of  these  46,000  were  absorbed,  in  part  in  the  protection 
of  the  coast  and  in  garrisoning  the  fortified  towns,  and  six  thousand  were 
under  Arena  and  Cervoni  at  Toulon,  ready  to  depart  for  Bastia.  Massena 
was  governor  of  divisions  on  the  frontier.  Dumerbion,  Commander-in-Chief, 
was  old  and  infirm.  Very  little — indeed,  nothing — had  hitherto  been  done. 
The  Army  of  Italy  had  been  engaged,  for  many  months,  at  the  feet  of  the 
Maritime  Alps,  in  attempting  to  dislodge  the  troops  of  Savoy  from  the 
fortresses  that  commanded  the  passes  into  Italy.  The  headquarters  were  at 
Nice.  The  troops  were  badly  served  with  munitions,  clothing,  and  food.  The 
officers,  afraid  of  the  guillotine,  should  they  encounter  disaster,  attempted 
nothing  in  any  way  precarious. 

On  the  6th  April  the  army  was  put  in  motion,  divided  into  three  columns. 
That  under  Massena  crossed  the  frontier,  beat  the  small  force  of  Austrians 
and  Piedmontese  that  held  the  road,  occupied  Oneglia,  and,  doubling  back, 
ascending  the  valley  of  the  Sura,  turned  the  position  of  Saorgio,  held  by  the 
Allies,  who  were  menaced  in  front  by  Dumerbion.  The  Piedmontese  garrison, 
alarmed  lest  their  retreat  should  be  cut  off,  escaped  over  the  Col  de  Tende. 
Then,  Dumerbion,  satisfied  with  a  campaign  that  had  lasted  a  month,  returned 
to  Nice. 

Salicetti  had  accompanied  Arena  and  Cervoni  to  Toulon,  consequently  the 
younger  Robespierre  and  Ricord  were  the  only  Commissioners  with  the  Army 
of  Italy  in  quality  of  Commissioners.  Napoleon  left  no  stone  unturned  to 
ingratiate  himself  with  the  brother  of  the  all-powerful  Dictator.     His  superior 


UNDER   ARREST  87 

genius  imposed  on  the  Deputy ;  and  Robespierre  believed  that  he  had  secured 
a  creature  who  would  blindly  obey  his  direction,  whereas,  in  fact,  his  feebler 
mind  was  dominated  by  that  of  Napoleon.  It  is  said  that  Bonaparte  used  his 
influence  to  check  the  proscriptions  from  being  carried  out  in  the  South,  and 
that  he  thereby  earned  the  gratitude  of  those  who  felt  they  stood  in  jeopardy 
of  their  lives.     But  there  is  no  contemporary  evidence  that  this  was  so. 

The  army  was  full  of  Corsicans.  The  events  in  the  island  had  led  to  the 
flight  of  all  the  exalted  and  fiery  spirits,  over  whom  Napoleon  had  exercised 
a  paramount  influence  at  Ajaccio,  and  they  gathered  around  their  old  political 
leader.  The  fall  of  Calvi,  and  the  separation  of  Corsica  from  France,  had 
produced  profound  irritation.  The  Committee  of  Public  Safety  declared  all 
Corsicans  to  be  "  traitors,  factious  intriguers,  robbers.  The  ingratitude  of  this 
perfidious  nation  is  at  its  climax;  they  know  anarchy  alone,  and  their  chiefs 
love  only  despotism.  It  is  to  be  desired  that  the  Departments  of  the  South 
should  be  purged  of  that  vile  canaille,  that  we  may  no  longer  have  these  muddy 
souls  before  our  eyes."  But  Napoleon  clung  to  the  younger  Robespierre. 
Tilly,  charge  d'affaires  of  France  in  Genoa,  wrote  to  Buchot,  Commissary  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  "  General  Bonaparte  is  the  favourite  and  intimate  counsellor  of 
the  younger  Robespierre";  and  the  latter  wrote  to  his  brother,  "To  the 
number  of  patriots  I  add  the  name  of  the  citizen  Bonaparte,  General-in-Chief 
■of  the  Artillery,  who  is  of  extraordinary  merit.  .  .  .  He  is  a  Corsican,  he  can 
only  offer  the  guarantee  of  a  man  of  that  nation  who  has  resisted  the  seduc- 
tions of  Paoli,  and  whose  estates  have  been  ravaged  by  this  traitor."  (5th  April, 
1794.)  The  sister  of  the  Robespierres  in  after  years  wrote:  "Bonaparte,  at 
that  time,  was  a  republican — I  would  even  say  he  was  one  of  the  Mountain ;  at 
least,  he  produced  that  impression  on  me,  when  I  was  at  Nice,  by  the  way  in 
which  he  viewed  things." 

In  June,  Maximilien  Robespierre  began  again  to  consider  what  was  to  be 
"done  about  Genoa.  He  wrote  to  Buchot  on  the  i6th:  "The  Genoese  Govern- 
ment employs  all  kinds  of  perfidious  means  to  vex  the  French  Republic. 
Some  decided  measures  must  be  taken  with  it,  to  impress  on  it  a  sense  of  fear. 
Instead  of  flattering  it,  we  must  enforce  on  it  the  necessity  of  exhibiting  in  a 
■conspicuous  manner  its  respect  for  the  Republic  and  its  armies." 

The  English  fleet  menaced  cutting  off  all  communications  by  sea  with 
Genoa,  and  the  way  by  land  was  intercepted  by  Piedmontese  and  Austrian 
troops.  Napoleon  was  now  entrusted  with  a  commission  to  Genoa,  from 
Ricord  and  the  younger  Robespierre.  He  was  to  go  ostensibly  to  remonstrate 
with  the  Genoese  Government  relative  to  several  small  matters  of  complaint. 
At  the  same  time,  he  received  secret  instructions  to  make  observations  on  the 
strength  of  Savona  and  the  fortifications  of  Genoa ;  to  get  some  idea  as  to 
what  amount  of  artillery  the  Genoese  had  at  their  command,  and  to  see  what 
would  be  the.  most  convenient  route  for  a  French  army  to  take  with  the  object 
of  capturing  Genoa. 

Bonaparte  arrived  in  Genoa  on  the  night  of  the  15th  July.  He  remained 
there  only  until  the  21st,  and  was  in  Nice  again  on  the  28th.     He  was  in  high 


88  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

spirits ;  he  thought  he  saw  his  way  to  a  coup  de  main  on  the  most  serene 
Republic. 

But  he  had  not  been  back  in  Nice  many  days  before  tidings  reached  him 
which  filled  him  with  the  utmost  consternation. 

Maximilien  Robespierre  had  gathered  the  reins  of  government  into  his  own 
hands,  and  removed  such  as  had  hitherto  worked  with  him,  but  who  had  equal 
ambition  and  abilities.  The  Girondins  had  been  swept  away,  and  then  he  pro- 
ceeded to  rid  himself  of  the  redoubtable  Danton  and  of  the  Hebertists.  The 
next  blow  was  to  be  levelled  against  Collot  d'Herbois,  Billaud-Varennes,. 
Tallien,  Fouche,  Freron,  Barras,  and  the  rest  of  Danton's  tail.  The  situation 
was  much  like  that  under  Domitian,  when  those  around  the  tyrant,  finding 
their  names  inscribed  on  his  tablets,  conspired  against  him  for  their  own  salva- 
tion. The  Committee  of  Public  Safety  had  arrested  a  member  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary Tribunal,  and  had  found  in  his  pocket  a  list  of  proscriptions  traced  by 
the  hand  of  Robespierre,  and  this  contained  the  names  of  several  of  the  Com- 
mittee, as  well  as  other  Deputies,  suspected  of  adhering  to  the  Orleans  faction. 

On  the  8th  Thermidor,  after  a  flourish, before  the  Convention,  on  his  own 
disinterestedness  and  patriotism,  Robespierre  broke  into  accusation  against 
those  of  his  colleagues  whom  he  had  resolved  to  destroy.  On  the  following 
day  Couthon  inveighed  against  them  as  well,  and  insisted  that  for  the  health  of 
the  body-politic,  its  gangrened  members  should  be  cut  off.  At  these  words, 
many  voices  rose  to  interrupt  the  orator,  and  those  menaced,  Tallien,  Freron, 
and  Billaud,  denounced  Robespierre  as  desiring  to  establish  a  dictatorship. 
The  majority,  in  fear  for  their  own  necks,  combined  ;  the  younger  Robespierre — 
who  had  been  summoned  by  his  brother  to  Paris — the  infamous  Couthon,  Saint 
Just,  and  Henriot,  were  united  in  the  charge  and  were  condemned.  On  the 
loth  Thermidor,  these  men,  with  sixteen  other  members  of  the  Revolutionary 
Tribunal,  and  of  the  Municipality,  were  executed.  On  the  morrow  seventy-one 
other  members  of  the  Municipality  met  with  the  same  fate.  The  Reign  of 
Terror  was  at  an  end  ;  that  is  to  say,  in  name.  The  men  who  had  brought 
about  the  fall  of  Robespierre  were  equally  criminal,  equally  dyed  in  blood,  and 
had  not  the  one  redeeming  merit  of  Maximilien  Robespierre — incorruptibility. 
The  victims  crowded  in  the  dungeons  were  released,  the  scaffolds  were  over- 
thrown, and  the  assassins  arrested  in  their  turn.  However,  when  the  attempt 
was  made  to  bring  them  to  justice,  invincible  obstacles  arose  ;  their  judges 
were  too  deeply  incriminated  to  dare  to  send  them  to  their  well-merited  fate. 
Napoleon  had  been  intimately  allied  with  the  younger  Robespierre,  and  the 
death  on  the  scaffold  of  the  brothers  made  his  position  precarious.  His  fears 
were  great,  and  the  panic  among  the  agents  and  instruments  of  Robespierre 
was  acute.  The  Representative  Ricord  and  his  wife  took  to  their  heels,  and 
hid  themselves  at  Grasse.  Haller  was  at  Genoa ;  not  thinking  himself  safe 
there,  he  escaped  into  Switzerland.  Tilly  was  seized  in  Genoa,  conveyed  to 
Paris,  and  thrown  into  prison.  Joseph  Bonaparte  had  fixed  the  ist  August  for 
his  marriage  with  Julie  Clary.  It  was  hurried  through  without  any  rejoicings. 
Salicetti,  Albitte,  and   Laporte,  who  were  with  the  Army  of  the  Alps,  turned 


UNDER   ARREST 


89 


against  Napoleon.  On  the  6th  August  they  denounced  him  to  the  Committee 
of  PubHc  Safety  as  an  intimate  of  Robespierre  and  Ricord,  and  as  involved  in 
a  treasonable  expedition  to  Genoa. 

But  the  day  before  this  Napoleon  had  written  a  letter  to  Tilly,  which  closed 
with  the  words  :  "  I  have  been  slightly  affected  by  the  catastrophe  which  has 
overtaken  Robespierre  the  younger,  whom  I  loved  and  believed  to  be  honest ; 
but,  even  if  he  had  been  my  father,  I  would  have  stabbed  him  myself,  if  he  had 
aspired  to  tyranny." 

A  strange  letter  this  I 
Bonaparte  renounces  Robes- 
pierre, as  he  had  renounced 
Paoli  and  Buttafuoco.  There 
are  strong  reasons  for  suspect- 
ing that  the  letter  was  not 
written  at  the  date  affixed  to 
it,  but  was  purposely  ante- 
dated. Its  object  was  con- 
spicuous. He  knew  that  Tilly's 
papers  would  be  seized,  and 
he  hoped  that  this  letter  might 
be  produced,  if  need  be,  to 
show  how  slight  had  been  his 
intimacy  with  the  lost  man. 

On  the  same  day  that 
the  Commissioners  denounced 
Bonaparte,  they  signed  the 
order  provisionally  suspend- 
ing him  from  his  functions,  and 
placing  him  under  arrest.  On 
the  loth  August,  an  officer 
and  ten  men  presented  them- 
selves at  Napoleon's  lodgings, 
and  took  charge  of  him  ;    he 

was  escorted  to  Nice,  and  on  the  12th  committed  to  Fort  Carre,  and  his 
papers  were  placed  under  seal. 

Fortunately  for  himself,  Salicetti  had  been  dissociated  for  a  while  from 
the  younger  Robespierre  and  Ricord,  and  his  jealousy  and  irritation  had  arisen 
against  Bonaparte,  because  the  young  general  had  planned  the  invasion  of 
Italy  by  the  advance  of  the  Army  of  Italy,  at  the  expense  of  that  of  the 
Alps.  This  had  caused  considerable  feeling  in  the  latter  army,  and  especially 
in  the  breasts  of  the  Commissioners  attached  to  it,  who  regarded  those  with 
the  Army  of  Italy  as  assuming  a  superior  power  and  dictation  to  which  they 
were  not  entitled. 

The  arrest  of  Napoleon  and  the  denunciation  were  due  to  an  ebullition 
of  that  spite,  but  not  only  so.     Salicetti  and  Albitte  were  desirous  of  clearing 


BONAPARTE    UNDER   ARREST. 
From  a  drawing  by  Weber. 


90  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

themselves  of  appearance  of  sympathy  with   the  fallen   dictator  by  sending 
complaints  against  one  of  his  brother's  creatures. 

The  news  that  Bonaparte  was  arrested,  and  was  likely  to  be  sent  to  Paris 
to  be  tried  by  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  had  produced  a  lively  agitation 
among  the  young  officers  of  the  Army  of  Italy,  who  had  attached  themselves 
to  his  fortunes.  They  formed  a  plan  to  deliver  him  by  force,  and  to  escape 
with  him  to  Genoa.  The  chief  of  those  in  this  conspiracy  were  Junot  and 
Marmont.     The  former  sent  him  a  letter  by  one  of  the  guard  with  the  offer. 

Napoleon  answered  :  "  I  see  a  strong  proof  of  your  friendship,  my  dear 
Junot,  in  the  proposition  you  make  me,  and  I  trust  you  feel  convinced  that 
the  friendly  sentiments  that  I  have  long  entertained  for  you  remain  unabated. 
Men  may  be  unjust  towards  me,  but  it  is  enough  for  me  to  know  that  I  am 
innocent.  My  conscience  is  the  tribunal  before  which  I  try  my  conduct. 
That  conscience  is  calm  when  I  question  it.  Do  not,  therefore,  stir  in  this 
business.     You  will  only  compromise  me." 

However,  as  Marmont,  in  his  Memoirs,  tells  us,  he  set  heaven  and  earth  in 
movement  to  effect  his  release.  He  might  rebut  the  charge  of  treasonable 
conduct  at  Genoa  by  producing  his  papers  of  instructions,  but  these  in- 
structions were  suspiciously  vague. 

He  set  himself  in  feverish  excitement  to  pen  a  memorial  to  Salicetti  and 
Albitte  in  assertion  of  his  innocence,  rather  than  as  an  argument  against  the 
charges  brought  against  him.  This  document  is  written  in  very  different  style 
from  his  revolutionary  rhapsodies ;  it  is  concise,  couched  in  peremptory  terms 
— to  the  point,  like  his  military  despatches.  It  was  written  in  his  prison, 
on  the  1 2th  of  August. 

"  To  the  Representatives  Albitte  and  Salicetti. 

"You  have  suspended  me  from  my  duties,  put  me  under  arrest,  and 
declared  me  to  be  suspected. 

"  Thus  I  am  cashiered  before  I  am  judged,  judged  before  I  have  been 
heard. 

"  In  a  Revolutionary  State  there  are  two  classes,  the  suspected  and  the 
patriots. 

"  When  the  first  are  accused,  measures  are  adopted  against  them  for  the 
sake  of  public  security. 

"  When  the  second  are  oppressed,  it  is  a  blow  to  Liberty.  There  is  no 
justification  for  arbitrary  judgment. 

"  To  declare  a  patriot  suspected  is  to  deprive  him  of  what  he  most  values — 
confidence  and  esteem. 

"  In  which  class  am  I  placed  ? 

"  Since  the  commencement  of  the  Revolution,  have  I  not  invariably  held  to 
its  principles? 

"  Have  I  not  contended  without  intermission  against  its  domestic  enemies 
and  the  foreign  foe  ? 

"  I  sacrificed  home,  property,  everything,  for  the  Republic. 

"  I  have  served  with  distinction  at  Toulon  and  in  Italy. 

"  On  the  discovery  of  Robespierre's  conspiracy,  my  conduct  was  that  of 
one  who  looks  to  principles  only. 


UNDER   ARREST  91 

"  My  claim  to  the  title  of  patriot  is,  therefore,  indisputable. 

"  Why  then  am  I  declared  suspected,  unheard,  eight  days  after  I  learned 
the  tyrant's  death  ? 

"  I  am  suspected,  my  papers  sealed. 

"  The  reverse  of  this  course  ought  to  have  been  adopted.  My  papers  should 
have  been  sealed,  first  of  all ;  then  I  should  have  been  called  on  for  an  ex- 
planation ;  lastly,  if  there  seemed  reason  for  it,  declared  suspected. 

"  I  am  required  to  go  to  Paris  as  one  suspected.  It  will  be  presumed  that 
the  order  was  drawn  up  by  the  representatives  on  accurate  information.  I 
shall  be  judged  with  the  bias  a  man  of  that  class  merits. 

"  Though  a  patriot,  and  an  innocent  and  calumniated  man,  yet  I  cannot 
appeal  against  the  measures  adopted  by  the  Committee. 

"  If  those  men  charge  me  with  having  committed  a  crime,  I  have  no 
appeal. 

"  Salicetti,  you  know  me.  Have  you  ever,  during  the  last  five  years,  seen 
in  me  aught  that  could  give  ground  for  suspicion  ? 

"  Albitte,  you  do  not  know  me.  You  have  received  no  proof  against  me, 
have  not  heard  me  ;  but  you  know  what  calumny  may  effect. 

"Must  I  be  numbered  among  the  enemies  of  my  country?  Is  a  general 
who  is  useless  to  be  recklessly  sacrificed  ? 

"  Hear  me.  Destroy  the  oppression  that  overwhelms  me.  Restore  me  to 
the  esteem  of  the  patriots. 

"  Then,  next  hour,  if  my  enemies  desire  my  life,  let  them  take  it.  I  have 
often  shown  how  little  I  value  it.  Only  the  thought  of  how  I  may  be  useful  to 
my  country  gives  it  any  value  in  my  eyes." 

Inquiries  were  made,  and  as  no  positive  grounds  for  the  charge  were  forth- 
coming, on  the  3rd  Fructidor  (20th  August,  1794)  the  Representatives  drew  up 
a  decree,  stating  that,  after  a  careful  examination  of  General  Bonaparte's 
papers,  and  of  the  orders  he  had  received  relative  to  his  mission  to  Genoa,  they 
saw  nothing  to  justify  any  suspicion  of  his  conduct;  and  that,  taking  into  con- 
sideration the  advantage  that  might  accrue  to  the  Republic  from  the  military 
talents  of  the  said  General  Bonaparte,  it  was  resolved  that  he  should  be 
provisionally  set  at  liberty. 

Mme.  Junot,  in  her  Memoirs,  on  her  brother's  information,  says  that 
Salicetti  became  thoughtful  and  silent  on  examination  of  the  papers  of 
Napoleon,  and  would  not  allow  him,  though  his  secretary,  to  look  at  them. 

The  explanation  of  the  release  seems  to  be  this.  Salicetti  and  Albitte 
knew  nothing  of  the  scheme  for  the  capture  of  Genoa  which  Napoleon  had 
proposed  to  the  Ministry  of  War,  and  which  he  urged  strongly  on  the  younger 
Robespierre.  Consequently  the  expedition  to  Genoa  was  to  them  inexplicable. 
But  when  Napoleon's  papers  were  overhauled  this  scheme  of  his  was  seen,  and 
Salicetti  saw  that  the  visit  to  Genoa  was  preparatory  to  the  execution  of  a 
concerted  plan.  When  he  and  Albitte  understood  this,  and  Salicetti's  first 
alarm  relative  to  himself  was  abated,  they  readily  consented  to  his  release. 

That  his  arrest  must  have  had  an  effect  on  Napoleon's  opinions  is  probable. 
He  had  felt  in  his  own  person  what  others  had  endured  during  the  tyrannous 
rule  of  his  friends,  the  Champions  of  Liberty,  the  mouthers  of  Patriotism  and 
of  Equality.     They,  less  fortunate  than  he,  but  equally  guiltless,  had  perished 


92  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

on  the  guillotine  or  under  a  fusillade.  He  had  escaped  by  accident.  Salicetti 
he  never  forgave.  Was  it  likely  that  he  should  relish  the  principles  under 
which  his  arrest  had  been  made  possible? 

He  had  seen  among  the  popular  leaders  everyone  ready  to  sacrifice  a  friend, 
an  ally,  who  stood  in  his  way,  who  in  the  smallest  degree  embarrassed  him. 
He  had  now  experienced  this  in  his  own  person,  in  that  he  was  denounced  by 
the  man  to  whom  he  had  looked  up,  with  whom  he  had  walked,  who  had  used 
him  in  Corsica  and  in  France  as  a  willing  tool,  his  countryman,  his  friend,  and 
political  ally ;  and  yet,  at  the  breath  of  danger,  the  man  had  been  ready  to  cast 
him  to  the  wolves,  careless  of  every  consideration  save  his  own  safety.  It 
deepened  in  the  young  man's  heart  the  conviction  that  there  was  nothing  in 
the  world  worth  fighting  for,  caring  for,  aiming  at,  but  self-advancement. 
Principles  were  not,  duty  was  non-existent.  The  supreme,  the  only  law  was 
that  of  self-interest.  Every  man  was  his  own  god,  imposing  on  him  an  ethic 
code,  and  that  code  was  summed  up  in  one  word — self-seeking. 


XVI 
UNDER    A    CLOUD 

(February— September  17,  1795) 

ALTHOUGH  Napoleon  had  been  liberated,  and  reinstated  in  his  grade  as 
General,  yet  he  had  not  recovered  his  place  as  Surveyor  of  the  Coast  and 
Director  of  its  Defences,  for  his  situation  had  immediately  been  given  to 
.another.     He  was  consequently  unemployed,  and  fell  into  low  spirits. 

Although  released,  he  was  regarded  askance  and  avoided,  even  by  his 
countrymen.  The  tide  ran  so  strong  against  all  who  had  been  associated  with 
Robespierre,  and  so  strong  was  the  execration  of  "  the  Terror,"  that  Napoleon, 
who  had  compromised  himself,  inevitably  suffered  from  the  reaction. 

The  Committee  of  Public  Safety  was  resolved  on  making  a  serious  attempt 
to  recover  Corsica,  and  a  portion  of  the  Army  of  Italy  was  detailed  for  the 
purpose,  under  the  command  of  General  Mouret.  The  command  of  the 
artillery  was  given  to  Bonaparte.  The  representatives,  Salicetti,  Ritter,  and 
Lacombe,  were  to  accompany  the  expedition. 

The  squadron  prepared  to  convey  the  troops  to  Corsica  consisted  of 
thirteen  vessels  of  the  line,  and  some  transports.  The  men  were  not  embarked 
till  the  17th  February,  1795.  "Their  enthusiasm,  and  their  being  accustomed 
±0  conquest,"  wrote  the  General  in  command,  "will  enable  him  to  plant  the 
tree  of  liberty  "  again  in  Corsica,  now  oppressed  by  the  English  tyrants. 

Bonaparte  had  displayed  extraordinary  energy,  and  was  confident  of 
success.  Junot,  his  aide-de-camp,  was  appointed  captain  of  hussars.  On  the 
1 8th  January,  the  young  General  wrote  joyously  to  the  Commissary  of  War, 
Deschamps,  an  old  acquaintance,  "  I  have  received  your  letter  too  late  to  be 
able  to  employ  you  in  this  maritime  expedition  ;  write  to  me,  however,  if  you 
are  still  set  on  it,  and  I  will  try  my  best  to  get  you  employed.  Count  on  my 
friendship,  and  be  sure  that  I  will  seize  with  the  greatest  eagerness  on  every 
.occasion  to  be  useful  to  you." 

Not  for  an  instant  was  the  conscience  of  Napoleon  troubled  with  the 
thought  of  serving  against  his  native  island,  of  bringing  it  under  subjection, 
and  erecting  the  guillotine  in  the  squares  of  its  towns. 

The  house  of  the  Bonapartes  had  been  wrecked  and  burnt  by  the  mob,  their 
property  confiscated  ;  and  with  the  true  spirit  of  Corsican  Vendetta,  Napoleon 
burned  to  avenge  his  personal  and  family  wrongs  on  all  those  who  had  in  any 

93 


94  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

way  been  compromised  in  this  act  of  popular  resentment,  whether  as  actors 
therein,  or  as  sympathisers  and  leaders  in  the  movement  for  the  emancipation 
of  Corsica. 

During  the  winter  of  1794-5,  Madame  Bonaparte  and  her  children  had 
settled  into  very  pleasant  quarters  in  the  Maison  Carree,  near  Antibes.  Louis, 
thanks  to  the  interest  made  by  Napoleon,  though  only  sixteen,  had  been 
appointed  to  be  lieutenant  of  Artillery.  The  usual  false  statements  and 
certificates  had  been  made,  and  produced  to  show  that  Louis  had  been  in 
active  service  during  two  years,  and  that  he  had  been  frequently  wounded. 
The  scratch  Napoleon  had  received  at  Toulon  had  been  served  up  already — it 
had  been  passed  on  to  Joseph,  had  got  him  his  brevet  of  colonel,  and  now  it 
was  passed  on  to  Louis  to  obtain  for  him  his  lieutenancy.  As  to  the  boy's 
active  service,  it  had  been  a  bit  of  schooling  at  Chalons,  nothing  more. 

On  the  3rd  March,  1795,  the  staff  embarked  with  orders  to  seek  the  English 
fleet  and  beat  it,  and  then  to  land  the  troops  in  Corsica. 

The  English  squadron,  under  Lord  Hotham,  was  at  Leghorn  at  the  time, 
unaware  of  the  destination  of  the  French  expedition.  The  French  succeeded 
in  capturing  the  Berwick,  of  seventy-four  guns,  in  the  Gulf  of  San  Fiorenzo,  by 
surrounding  and  surprising  her.  But  the  British  admiral  was  not  long  in 
taking  his  revenge.  On  the  7th  March  he  sailed  from  Leghorn  with  thirteen 
line-of-battle  ships,  and  fell  in  with  the  French  squadron  on  the  13th.  By  a 
skilful  manoeuvre  he  succeeded  in  cutting  off  two  ships  of  the  line,  the  Ca  ira 
and  the  Vengeur,  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  British ;  and  the  remainder  of 
the  fleet,  after  a  sharp  action,  beat  a  retreat,  and  took  refuge  under  the  guns  of 
the  forts  of  the  Isles  of  Hyeres  and  the  Gulf  of  S.  Juan.  The  troops  on  the 
transports  were  at  once  disembarked  and  sent  to  rejoin  the  Army  of  Italy. 
The  attempt  upon  Corsica  was  abandoned. 

Napoleon  had  been  brought  face  to  face  with  the  English,  and  had  been 
foiled  by  them,  and  that  i-n  his  darling  scheme.  This  probably  had  something 
to  do  with  the  sowing  in  his  heart  the  seeds  of  that  hatred  of  England,  which 
became  in  him  in  later  years  a  dominant  passion. 

For  some  time  the  Government  had  looked  on  the  Army  of  Italy  with 
suspicion.  Many  of  the  officers  were  Corsicans,  and  the  Commissioners  of  the 
Convention,  Salicetti,  Multedo,  and  Casablanca,  were  of  the  same  nation.  The 
Corsicans  were  never  liked,  always  regarded  with  mistrust,  and  now  it  was 
resolved  to  separate  these  islanders,  and  disperse  them  over  the  country,  to 
prevent  the  possibility  of  political  combination.  In  pursuance  of  this  design, 
to  his  profound  astonishment  and  indignation,  Napoleon  found  himself  trans- 
ferred to  the  Army  of  La  Vendee.  He  was  required  to  leave  the  Army  of 
Italy,  in  which  he  had  won  his  first  successes,  and  all  his  friends  and  intimates 
among  his  brother  officers,  and  instead  of  fighting  against  a  foreign  enemy,  was 
to  be  employed  in  mowing  down  with  grape  the  insurgent  peasantry  who 
fought  for  the  Lilies  against  the  Tricolor.  Angry,  resentful,  determined  not  to 
accept  the  position  given  him,  he  hastened  to  Paris,  to  obtain  by  his  representa- 
tions a  withdrawal  of  the  obnoxious  order. 


UNDER   A   CLOUD  95 

But  this  was  not  the  only  misfortune  that  now  came  upon  the  Bonapartes. 
Joseph's  appointment  as  Commissary  of  War  was  cancelled,  for  his  antecedents 
had  been  looked  into  a  little  more  narrowly,  and  his  qualification  for  it  dis- 
allowed, as  he  had  never  been  a  colonel  in  the  army,  nor  wounded  in  active 
service. 

On  the  2nd  May,  1795,  Napoleon  left  Marseilles  for  Paris.  He  had  sold 
his  horses  and  his  carriage ;  he  took  with  him  his  brother  Louis,  Junot,  and 
Marmont.  He  felt  angry,  reckless,  resentful,  and  at  the  same  time  despondent. 
On  reaching  the  capital  he  wrote  to  Joseph  : — 

"  I  feel  like  a  person  on  the  eve  of  a  battle,  and  that  it  is  nonsense  to  take 
any  thought  for  the  morrow,  when  death  may  overtake  me  at  any  moment. 
Everything  tempts  me  to  brave  destiny,  and  if  this  continues,  my  friend,  I 
shall  end  by  not  getting  out  of  the  way  of  the  carriages  as  they  pass.  This 
sometimes  astonishes  my  reason,  but  such  is  the  sensation  produced  by  the 
moral  spectacle  of  this  country,  and  the  doctrine  of  chances." 

No  good  report  of  him  had  gone  before  to  Paris.  Indeed  his  recall  from 
the  Army  of  Italy  had  been  the  work  of  Lacombe,  who  thoroughly  appreciated 
his  tricky  nature,  and  utterly  mistrusted  him.  He  had  written  on  the  27th 
March  to  Pille,  Secretary  of  the  Commission  of  War :  "  I  entreat  you  to 
give  orders  to  the  General  of  Brigade,  Bonaparte,  to  go  immediately  to  the 
Army  of  the  West,  there  to  take  command  of  the  Artillery."  Scherer,  who 
had  succeeded  Dumerbion  in  the  command  of  the  Army  of  Italy,  reported 
of  him,  "  He  is  a  General  of  Artillery,  of  which  branch  of  the  service  he 
possesses  a  thorough  knowledge,  but  for  promotion  he  has  too  much  ambition, 
and  is  too  given  to  intrigue." 

On  his  removal  to  Paris,  Colonel  Jung  has  some  weighty  words  to  say  that 
merit  quotation  : — 

"Of  knowledge  he  had  plenty.  On  this  head,  his  superiority  to  his  col- 
leagues was  incontestable.  He  had  the  faculty  for  forming  his  conceptions 
clearly.  He  saw  things  in  their  ensemble.  His  letters,  and  his  historical,  social, 
and  religious  studies  had  furnished  him  with  ideas  on  all  subjects.  These 
ideas,  it  is  true,  were  still  somewhat  confused  ;  but  the  germ,  powerful  and 
original,  was  in  him.  As  to  practical  knowledge,  in  this  he  was  superior  to 
every  other  officer.  For  six  years  he  had  been  mixed  up  in  all  the  cabals 
of  Ajaccio.  He  had  made  exceptional  study  of  civil  war.  As  to  morality, 
he  did  not  even  understand  the  value  of  the  word.  Where  could  he  have 
learned  it?  For  one  moment  he  had  the  instinct  of  generous  self-devotion — 
that  was  when  he  was  in  contact  with  those  fiery  patriots  out  of  whom  came 
the  Convention  " — I  should  rather  say,  when  he  was  under  the  spell  of  Paoli. 
"  For  one  instant  he  knew  how  to  obey,  he  who  was  insubordination  from 
head  to  toe.  The  energy  of  that  Colossus,  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety, 
had  imposed  on  him.  But  with  the  fall  of  his  protectors,  this  opinion  of  what 
was  just  disappeared.  Scepticism  gained  supremacy  in  that  withered  heart. 
From  this  moment,  in  fact,  the  military  career  was  destined  to  become  in  his 
eyes  a  business,  more  or  less  lucrative,  more  or  less  glorious,  according  as 
he  used  it  to  his  own  advantage.  Such  was  now  General  Bonaparte,  a  living 
synthesis  of  good  and  evil,  a  monstrous  bacillus,  ready,  when  in  suitable 
surroundings,  to  develop  to  full  extent." 


96  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Almost  immediately  on  arriving  in  Paris,  Napoleon  called  on  Aubry,  then 
in  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  and  in  charge  of  the  direction  of  Military 
Affairs.  Having  himself  failed,  Bonaparte  next  engaged  a  friend  to  intercede 
for  him  with  Aubry  ;  and  followed  him  to  the  Ministry  of  War,  where  he 
remained  in  the  ante-chamber,  whilst  his  friend  was  closeted  with  the  Minister. 
There  was  but  a  feeble  partition  between  the  apartments,  and  he  heard  Aubry 
exclaim,  "  Is  it  you.  Monsieur,  v/hose  misfortunes  and  whose  loathing  for 
anarchy  are  well  known,  who  now  venture  to  solicit  a  favour  for  a  man  who 
would  be  the  prop  of  the  Terrorists  if  only  the  occasion  were  given  him?"* 

Napoleon  had  put  up  in  Paris  at  a  shabby  house,  called  "  L' Hotel  de  la 
Liberte,"  situated  in  the  Rue  du  Mail,  afterwards  called  by  the  name  of 
Aboukir,  in  honour  of  one  of  his  victories.  Here  he  renewed  acquaintance 
with  Bourrienne  and  Madame  Permon,  the  mother  of  the  lively  girl  afterwards 
the  wife  of  Junot,  so  that  we  have  their  assistance  in  helping  us  to  picture  him 
at  this  period  of  discouragement. 
/  The  whole  Bonaparte  family  was  affected  by  the  fall  of  Robespierre. 
Napoleon  had  lost  his  appointment,  so  had  Joseph,  and  now  Louis  was  ako 
struck  off  the  role  as  lieutenant,  notwithstanding  the  wounds  lent  him  by  his 
brother,  and  was  ordered  peremptorily  to  go  back  to  school  at  Chalons. 
Lucien,  on  account  of  his  violence  in  behalf  of  the  Mountain,  was  arrested,  and 
thrown  into  prison.  This  mean,  conceited,  spiteful  fellow,  "  badly  shaped,  with 
legs  and  arms  formed  like  those  of  a  spider,  small,  short-sighted,  always  with 
a  grin  on  his  face,"  wrote  in  abject  terror  to  Chiappe,  the  Delegate,  "  I  have 
been  imprisoned  on  the  order  of  the  Municipality  of  S.  Maximin,  where  I  was 
member  of  the  Committee.  .  .  .  Citizen  Representative,  at  every  moment  we 
are  in  terror  of  a  renewal  of  massacres  in  the  prisons.  Without  money,  I  see 
my  wife  and  daughter  unhappy,  divested  of  all.  .  .  .  Oh !  save  me  from  death  ! 
save  a  citizen,  a  father,  a  husband,  an  unfortunate  son,  and  one  who  is  not 
guilty !  In  the  silence  of  night,  may  my  pale  shadow  wander  around  you 
and  melt  you  to  pity,"  and  so  on.f  This  whine  comes  from  one  of  the  most 
savage  and  remorseless  of  denouncers  of  his  fellow  men  in  the  Jacobin  Clubs. 
Chiappe  could  do  nothing.  But  the  Bonaparte  family  held  together  like  bees. 
Napoleon  was  at  Paris  ;  he  flew  to  Barras  and  Freron,  and  obtained  the  release 
of  his  brother.  He  did  more,  he  entreated  for  a  consulship  to  be  given  to 
his  brother  Joseph,  and  it  is  somewhat  amusing  to  see  the  account  of  his 
services  produced  to  warrant  his  nomination.  There  is  nothing  in  that  now 
about  Joseph's  military  career  and  his  wounds. 

For  himself.  Napoleon  had  received  peremptory  orders  to  join  the  Army  of 
the  West,  in  the  capacity  of  a  General  of  Infantry,  but  go  he  would  not.  He 
procured  a  certificate  from  a  complaisant  doctor  to  state  that  he  was  ill.  But 
that  did  not  suffice.  To  obtain  permission  to  absent  himself  from  the  army, 
he  was  bound  to  appear  before  the  Council  of  Health,  and  this,  precisely,  was 
what  he  would  not  do,  because  he  was  not  really  ill. 

*  The  friend  seems  to  have  been  Barras.     See  his  Memoirs,  i.  312. 
t  Dated  21st  July,  1795,  f'^ofn  the  prison  at  Aix. 


UNDER    A   CLOUD  97 

As  he  could  not  move  Aubry,  he  was  resolved  to  remain  in  Paris  until  after 
the  4th  of  August,  when  Aubry  would  be  out  of  office. 

In  the  meantime  he  was  indefatigable  in  his  efforts  to  get  his  past  services 
recognised,  and  to  obtain  indemnification  for  losses.  He  applied  for  2640  livres 
for  his  expenses  in  coming  to  Paris  from  Nice,  in  obedience  to  the  order  trans- 
ferring him  to  the  Army  of  the  West.  He  had  come,  by  the  way,  from  Mar- 
seilles only.  He  asked  to  be  indemnified  for  his  horses  that  he  had  sold — but 
there  was  something  suspicious  about  this  demand,  and  the  Commission 
refused  it,  because  it  was  not  shown  that  he  had  sold  his  horses,  or  proved  that 
he  had  any  to  sell. 

Napoleon  had  good  reason  to  expect  a  change,  and  he  was  encouraged  in  his 
expectations  by  Salicetti.  Whether  the  latter  had  engaged  him  in  the  conspiracy 
that  broke  out  on  the  ist  Prairial,  against  the  Thermidorians,  is  uncertain. 

The  want  of  bread  in  Paris  was  felt  severely.  The  allowance  to  the  people 
had  been  reduced  to  two  ounces  per  individual.  At  the  same  time,  it  was 
noised  abroad  that  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  had  secured  nearly  three 
million  quintals  of  corn.  The  starving  populace  concluded  that  the  speculators 
among  the  Ministry  were  reaping  a  rich  harvest  to  themselves  out  of  the 
public  distress  ;  that  the  bakers  were  also  holding  back  flour.  Their  stomachs 
were  empty,  not  because  France  was  at  war,  and  convoys  were  arrested,  not 
because  the  Terror  had  paralysed  activity  in  the  fields  at  home,  but  because  the 
Government,  the  middle  classes,  the  merchants,  were  in  league  against  them. 
To  get  their  stomachs  filled,  they  must  send  to  the  gallows  the  bourgeoisie,  as 
they  had  sent  the  noblesse  previously. 

Accordingly  all  was  prepared  for  a  riot,  an  attack  on  the  Convention,  and 
the  trial,  condemnation,  and  execution  of  the  Thermidorians  who  had  dethroned 
and  destroyed  Robespierre. 

It  was  more  than  suspected  that  the  Government  proposed  the  destruction 
of  the  Constitution  of  1793.  Already,  on  the  12th  Germinal,  a  prelude  had 
been  played,  but  had  been  suppressed.  The  revolt  broke  out  on  the  ist  Prairial 
(May  20th).  The  mob,  yelling  for  bread  and  the  Constitution  of  '93,  marched 
on  the  Tuileries,  and  broke  into  the  Hall  of  Convention.  Women  invaded  the 
tribune.  The  representative  Ferrand  was  shot,  cut  to  pieces,  and  his  head 
hoisted  on  a  pike.  The  mob  seemed  to  have  carried  the  day,  when  the  troops  of 
the  Convention  arrived,  and  dispersed  them  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  At  once 
the  Representatives  resumed  their  places  on  the  benches  of  the  Assembly,  and  de- 
creed the  arrest  of  fourteen  of  their  number — members  of  the  Mountain.  The  riot 
continued  till  the  4th,  and  then  the  victory  of  the  Thermidorians  was  complete. 

Goujon  had  well  stated  the  case  during  the  confusion.  "If  the  people  do 
not  kill  us  to-day,  our  colleagues  will  cut  our  throats  to-morrow." 

The  Deputies  compromised  in  the  insurrection  were  delivered  over  to  a 
military  commission,  except  Albitte,  who  had  fled,  Salicetti,*  who  concealed 

*  Salicetti's  name  was  not  on  the  first  list,  but  he  knew  so  well  that  he  would  be  involved  in  pro- 
scription, that  he  fled,  and,  in  cowardly  fashion,  concealed  himself  in  the  house  of  M.  Permon,  and 
refused  to  leave  it. 


98  THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

himself  in  the  house  of  Mme.  Permon,  and  one  or  two  others.  The  popular 
clubs  were  closed,  and  eight  thousand  rioters  were  thrown  into  chains.  The 
old  Terrorists,  become  Thermidorians,  hastened  to  smother  in  blood  the 
voices  of  those  who  had  been  associated  with  them  in  their  previous  career 
of  crime. 

Mme.  Junot  writes  : — 

"  There  was  greater  reason  to  dread  the  issue  of  this  day  [ist  Prairial]  than 
that  of  the  14th  of  July,  the  6th  of  October,  or  the  loth  of  August.  The 
animosity  of  the  people  was  not  directed  against  a  castle  or  a  court,  but  against 
everything  that  stood  above  the  grade  of  the  lowest  rung  of  society.  This  it 
was  that  saved  France,  as  well  as  the  Convention.  All  those  who  had  anything 
to  lose  united  into  corps,  which  were  superior  to  unorganised  masses,  acting 
without  plan,  and  apparently  unled. 

"  Whilst  the  most  frightful  scenes  were  enacting  in  the  Convention,  the 
respectable  inhabitants  of  Paris  shut  themselves  up  in  their  houses,  concealed 
their  valuables,  and  awaited  the  result  in  fearful  anxiety.  Towards  evening,  my 
brother,  whom  we  had  not  seen  during  the  whole  day,  came  home  to  get  some- 
thing to  eat;  he  was  almost  famished,  not  having  tasted  food  since  the  morning. 
Disorder  still  raged,  mingled  with  the  beating  of  drums.  My  brother  had 
scarcely  finished  his  hasty  repast  before  General  Bonaparte  arrived  to  make  a 
similar  demand  upon  our  hospitality.  He  contented  himself  with  what  my 
brother  had  left,  and,  while  eating,  told  us  the  news  of  the  day.  It  was 
appalling.  My  brother  had  informed  us  of  but  a  part.  He  did  not  know  of 
the  assassination  of  the  unfortunate  Ferrand,  whose  body  had  been  cut  almost 
piecemeal.  '  They  took  his  head,'  said  Bonaparte,  '  and  presented  it  to  poor 
Boissy  dAnglas,  and  the  shock  of  this  fiend-like  act  was  almost  death  to  the 
president  in  his  chair.  Truly,'  added  he,  'if  we  continue  thus  to  sully  our 
revolution,  it  will  be  a  disgrace  to  be  a  Frenchman.  .  .  .  Have  you  seen  Sali- 
cetti  during  the  last  few  days  ? '  he  asked,  after  a  moment's  silence  ;  '  they  say 
he  is  implicated.  It  is  likewise  suspected  that  Romine  is  compromised.  He  is 
a  worthy  man,  and  a  staunch  republican.  As  to  Salicetti ! '  Here  Bonaparte 
paused,  struck  his  brow  with  his  hand,  contracted  his  eyebrows,  and  his  whole 
frame  seemed  agitated.  In  a  voice  trembling  with  emotion,  he  continued, 
'  Salicetti  has  injured  me  greatly.  He  threw  a  cloud  over  the  bright  dawn  of 
my  youth,  he  blighted  my  hopes  of  glory !  However,  I  bear  him  no  ill-will.' 
My  brother  was  about  to  defend  Salicetti  [he  was  his  secretary].  '  Cease, 
Permon,  cease,'  exclaimed  Bonaparte ;  '  that  man,  I  tell  you,  has  been  my  evil 
genius.  I  may  forgive,  but  to  forget  is  another  matter.'  While  speaking, 
Bonaparte  appeared  abstracted. 

"On  the  2 1st  May,  my  mother  expected  a  party  of  friends  to  dinner.  She 
was  to  leave  Paris  in  a  few  days  for  Bordeaux.  Bonaparte  was  one  of  the 
company  invited  to  dine  with  us  that  day.  It  was  six  o'clock ;  one  of  the 
guests  had  arrived,  and  my  mother  was  sitting  in  the  drawing-room  conversing 
with  him,  when  Mariette  came  and  whispered  to  her  that  there  was  somebody 
in  her  chamber,  who  wished  to  speak  with  her  alone.  My  mother  immediately 
rose  and  went  to  her  chamber,  and  beheld  near  the  window  a  man,  half 
concealed  by  the  curtain.  It  was  Salicetti,  pale  as  death ;  his  lips  were  as 
white  as  his  teeth,  and  his  dark  eyes  appeared  to  flash  fire.  *  I  am  proscribed,' 
he  said  to  my  mother,  in  breathless  haste ;  '  which  is  the  same  thing  as  con- 
demned to  death.     Madame  Permon,  I  hope  you  will  save  me.' 

"  My  mother  took  Salicetti  by  the  hand,  and  conducted  him  into  the  next 
room,  which  was  my  bedchamber.     Several  persons  were  now  assembled  in 


UNDER    A   CLOUD  99 

the  drawing-room,  and  she  thought  she  heard  the  voice  of  Bonaparte.  She 
was  ready  to  faint  with  terror.  '  SaHcetti,'  she  said,  '  all  that  I  can  grant,  you 
may  command  ;  but  there  is  one  thing  more  dear  to  me  than  life,  and  that 
is  the  safety  of  my  children.  By  concealing  you  for  a  few  hours  I  shall  not 
save  you,  and  I  only  bring  my  head  to  the  scaffold,  and  endanger  the  lives 
of  my  children.' 

"  At  this  moment  the  chamber  door  opened,  and  my  mother  ran  towards 
the  person  who  was  about  to  enter.  It  was  my  brother ;  he  came  to  inquire 
why  dinner  was  delayed.  '  All  the  company  has  arrived,'  he  said,  '  except 
Bonaparte,  who  has  sent  an  apology.'  My  mother  clasped  her  hands,  and 
raised  them  to  heaven." 

Salicetti  insisted  on  throwing  himself  on  the  Permon  family.  M.  Permon 
was  away  at  Bordeaux.  As  the  family  was  going  to  join  him,  he  proposed  to 
travel  in  disguise  with  them. 

"  Next  morning,  about  11  o'clock,  we  received  a  visit  from  General  Bona- 
parte, and  as  the  scene  which  then  ensued  made  a  greater  impression  on  me 
than  almost  any  event  of  my  life,  I  will  describe  it  minutely.  Bonaparte  was 
at  that  time  attired  in  the  costume  he  wore  almost  ever  after.  He  had  on 
a  grey  greatcoat,  very  plainly  made,  buttoned  up  to  the  chin,  and  round  hat, 
which  was  either  drawn  over  his  forehead  so  as  almost  to  conceal  his  eyes, 
or  stuck  upon  the  back  of  his  head  so  that  it  appeared  about  to  fall  off,  and 
a  black  cravat,  very  clumsily  tied.  At  that  period,  indeed,  nobody,  either  man 
or  woman,  paid  any  great  attention  to  elegance  of  appearances,  and  I  must 
confess  that  Bonaparte's  costume  did  not  then  appear  so  shabby  as  it  now 
does  on  reflection.  He  brought  with  him  a  bunch  of  violets,  which  he  pre- 
sented to  my  mother.  This  piece  of  gallantry  was  so  extraordinary  on  his 
part,  that  we  could  not  help  smiling  at  it.  He  replied,  and  smiled  also  ;  '  I 
suppose  I  make  but  a  sorry  cavaliere  servente!  After  some  conversation 
he  said,  'Well,  Mme.  Permon,  Salicetti  will  now  in  his  turn  be  able  to 
appreciate  the  bitter  fruits  of  arrest.'  '  What,'  said  my  mother,  '  is  Salicetti 
arrested  ? ' 

" '  How !  do  you  not  know  that  he  has  been  proscribed  ?  I  supposed  you 
must  have  known  of  it,  as  it  was  in  your  house  he  was  concealed.' 

" '  Concealed  in  my  house ! '  cried  my  mother.  '  My  dear  Napoleon,  you 
are  mad.  But,  indeed,  before  I  entered  on  such  a  scheme  I  should  have  had 
a  house  to  call  my  own.  I  beseech  you,  general,  repeat  this  joke  nowhere  else 
— it  endangers  our  lives.' 

"  Bonaparte  rose  from  his  seat,  advanced  slowly  towards  my  mother,  and 
crossing  his  arms,  fixed  his  eyes  on  her  for  some  time  in  silence.  My  mother 
did  not  flinch  beneath  his  eagle  glance.  '  Madame  Permon,'  he  said,  '  Salicetti 
is  concealed  in  your  house.'  'And  by  what  right,'  replied  my  mother  with 
unshaken  firmness,  '  should  Salicetti  seek  an  asylum  here?  He  is  well  aware 
that  our  political  sentiments  are  at  variance.'  '  My  dear  Madame  Permon,  you 
may  well  ask  by  what  right  he  should  apply  to  you  for  concealment.  To 
come  to  a  lone  woman,  who  might  be  compromised  by  receiving  him,  is  an 
act  to  which  no  consideration  should  have  driven  him.  You  are  an  excellent 
woman,  and  Salicetti  is  a  villain  ;  you  could  not  close  your  doors  against  him, 
of  that  he  was  aware,  and  yet  he  is  ready  to  compromise  your  safety  and  that 
of  your  child.     I  never  liked  him,  now  I  despise  him.'"* 

*  Greatly  condensed  from  the  Memoirs  of  Mme.  Junot. 


loo        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Mme.  Permon  succeeded  in  smuggling  Salicetti  out  of  Paris,  disguised  as 
a  valet.  At  Croix  de  Berny,  a  postillion  presented  the  lady  with  a  letter.  It 
was  from  Napoleon  : — 

"  I  never  like  to  be  thought  a  dupe.  I  should  seem  such  in  your  eyes  if 
I  did  not  tell  you  that  I  knew  of  Salicetti's  place  of  concealment,  more  than 
twenty  days  ago.  You  may  recollect,  Madame  Permon,  what  I  said  to  you 
on  the  first  of  Prairial.  I  was  almost  morally  sure  of  it  then,  I  know  it  now 
for  a  certainty. 

"  You  see  then,  Salicetti,  that  I  might  have  returned  you  the  ill  you  did 
to  me.  In  so  doing  I  should  have  revenged  myself;  as  for  you,  you  injured 
me  when  I  had  not  offended  you.  Which  of  us  stands  in  a  preferable  position  ? 
I  might  have  taken  my  revenge,  but  I  did  not.  Perhaps  you  will  say  that 
your  benefactress  was  your  safeguard.  That  consideration,  I  confess,  was 
powerful.  But  alone,  unarmed,  and  an  outlaw,  your  life  would  have  been 
sacred  to  me.  Go,  seek  in  peace  an  asylum  where  you  may  learn  to  cherish 
better  sentiments  for  your  country.  Concerning  your  name  my  lips  are 
closed." 

Napoleon's  leave  to  be  absent  from  the  Army  of  the  West  expired  on  the 
15th  May,  but  he  had  applied  for  further  extension  of  leave  to  the  14th  July, 
which  was  accorded,  then  he  demanded  another  extension,  which  was  not 
granted.  He  continued  to  besiege  the  War  Office  with  applications,  with 
schemes  and  suggestions,  and  he  cultivated  the  society  of  such  men  of  influ- 
ence as  he  met  at  the  house  of  Barras. 

At  this  time,  very  out  of  pocket  and  out  of  hope,  he  seems  to  have 
meditated  marrying  Desiree  Clary,  the  rich  soap-boiler's  daughter,  and  he 
wrote  to  his  brother  Joseph,  who  had  married  her  sister  Julie,  to  favour 
his  suit. 

The  condition  of  affairs  in  Paris  was  desperate.  Under  Robespierre  there 
had  been  unity  of  action  in  the  conduct  of  government,  but  now  France 
was  ruled  by  sixteen  independent  Committees.  The  assignats  had  fallen  in 
value,  and  daily  were  falling  lower.  A  gold  louis  was  worth  750  paper  francs. 
The  dearth  of  bread  was  felt  by  all  classes.  Madame  Bourrienne  speaks  of 
her  being  able  to  procure  white  bread,  but  that  had  it  been  known,  it  might 
have  cost  her  her  head. 

Mme.  Junot  gives  a  description  of  his  appearance  at  this  time,  which  merits 
•quotation  : — 

"At  this  period  of  his  life  Bonaparte  was  decidedly  ugly;  he  afterwards 
underwent  a  total  change.  I  do  not  speak  of  the  illusive  charm  which  his 
glory  spread  around  him,  but  I  mean  to  say  that  a  gradual  physical  change 
took  place  in  him  in  the  space  of  seven  years.  His  emaciated  thinness  was 
converted  into  fulness  of  face,  and  his  complexion,  which  had  been  yellow  and 
apparently  unhealthy,  became  clear  and  comparatively  fresh ;  his  features, 
which  were  sharp  and  angular,  became  round  and  filled  out.  As  to  his  smile, 
it  was  always  agreeable.  The  mode  of  dressing  the  hair  was  then  simple ;  for 
the  young  fashionables  (/es  muscadins),  whom  he  used  to  rail  at  so  loudly  at  the 
time,  wore  their  hair  very  long.  But  he  was  very  careless  of  his  personal 
appearance ;  and  his  hair,  which  was  ill-combed  and  badly  powdered,  gave  him 


UNDER   A   CLOUD.  >  .01 

the  look  of  a  sloven.  His  little  hands,  too,  underwent  a  great  metamorphosis  : 
when  I  first  saw  him  they  were  thin,  long,  and  dark ;  but  he  was  subsequently 
vain  of  them,  and  with  reason." 

Although  discouraged  for  the  time,  Napoleon  did  not  lose  confidence  in 
himself.  Already  we  see  indications  of  his  belief  that  Destiny  had  in  store 
something  for  him. 

One  evening  Junot  confided  to  him  that  he  loved  Pauline,  Napoleon's  sister, 
and,  as  an  inducement  to  Bonaparte  to  give  consent,  told  him  that  on  his 
father's  death  he  would  come  in  for  20,000  francs.  "That  is  all  very  well," 
said  Napoleon,  "but  your  father  wears  well,  and  meantime  you  have  but 
your  lieutenant's  pay.  You  cannot  marry  at  present.  You  must  wait.  We 
shall  perhaps  see  better  days,  my  friend.  Yes !  we  shall  have  them,  even  should 
I  have  to  go  to  seek  them  in  another  quarter  of  the  world." 

Speaking  of  Salicetti  one  day  to  Madame  Permon,  he  said,  "That  man 
sought  to  ruin  me,  but  my  star  prevented  him.  However,  I  must  not  boast  of 
my  star,  for  who  knows  what  may  be  my  fate  ?  " 

Madame  Junot  says,  "  I  shall  never  forget  the  expression  of  his  face  as  he 
uttered  these  words." 

What  he  said  to  Junot  shows  that  already  he  was  turning  his  expectation  to 
the  East.  We  shall  see  his  schemes  taking  that  direction  very  decidedly  a  few 
months  later. 

It  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  he  could  not  laugh  at  the  jests  of  an 
actor  in  a  comedy,  and  that  the  platitudes  of  conversation  in  a  box  at  the 
opera  wearied  him.  His  eager,  restless  mind  was  elsewhere,  with  the  Army 
of  the  Alps,  now  commanded  by  Kellermann,  or  that  of  Italy,  which  co- 
operated with  it,  under  Scherer. 

At  the  end  of  July,  Doulcet  Pontecoulant  was  appointed  Minister  of  War, 
in  the  place  of  Aubry,  and  at  once  Napoleon's  hopes  rose.  The  Army  of  Italy 
was  not  only  unsuccessful  in  gaining  ground,  it  had  actually  been  obliged  to 
recede.  Doulcet  sought  for  someone  who  understood  the  topography  of  the 
frontier,  who  could  advise  as  to  what  should  be  done.  Boissy-d'Anglas,  his 
colleague,  at  once  mentioned  Napoleon,  and  described  his  qualifications. 
Doulcet  sent  for  him.  Napoleon  came  to  the  office,  and  not  only  answered 
readily  every  question  put  to  him,  but  detailed  a  plan  of  campaign  which 
embraced  not  only  the  invasion  of  Lombardy,  but  a  march  through  Tyrol  into 
Austria. 

"General,"  the  astonished  Minister  said,  "your  ideas  are  as  dazzling  as 
they  are  bold,  but  they  must  be  leisurely  considered.  Take  time  and  draw 
up  an  account  of  what  you  propose,  to  have  it  submitted  to  the  Committee." 

"Time!"  repeated  Bonaparte;  "my  plan  is  ready,  and  in  half  an  hour  I 
will  draw  it  out.     Give  me  a  couple  of  sheets  of  paper  and  a  pen." 

No  sooner  said  than  done.  But  his  handwriting  was  an  illegible  scrawl. 
Next  day  he  brought  a  copy  in  the  writing  of  Junot.  The  success  of  his 
scheme  depended  on  boldness  and  rapidity.  The  peace  with  Spain  and 
Prussia,  he  argued,  allowed  of  a  concentration  of  troops  against  Austria.     The 


I02        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Army  of  the  Rhine  would  act  in  concert  with  that  of  Italy.  It  would  pass 
through  South  Germany,  whilst  that  of  Italy  stormed  the  passes  of  Tyrol,  and 
they  would  join  hands  under  the  walls  of  Vienna.  Every  difficulty  with  the 
King  of  Sardinia  would  be  set  aside  by  offering  him  an  indemnity  in  Italy 
for  the  loss  of  Nice  and  Savoy.  By  this  means,  the  rear  of  the  advancing 
army  would  be  secured.* 

This  brilliant  scheme  was  debated  and  sent  to  Kellermann  and  Scherer 
for  approval.  The  former  replied  that  it  was  the  dream  of  a  madman  ;  the 
second  advised  that  the  man  who  had  proposed  such  a  scheme  should  be  sent 
to  execute  it.  A  year  later,  and  this  madman  did  carry  out  his  plan,  to  the 
astonishment  of  the  world  at  large,  and  in  particular  of  the  two  generals  who 
had  rejected  it. 

Doulcet  now  placed  Napoleon  in  the  topographical  department.  The 
latter  seized  on  his  opportunities  to  enter  into  relation  with  the  various  armies 
and.  troops  serving  the  Republic,  and  he  was  likewise  brought  into  association 
with  many  of  the  members  of  the  Government. 

It  was  not  possible  to  displace  Kellermann  and  Scherer,  and  put  this  young 
officer  in  their  room.  Napoleon  himself  could  not  expect  it.  His  ambition 
again  took  the  direction  of  the  East. 

On  the  5th  of  August,  Bonaparte  addressed  a  memorial  to  the  Committee 
of  Public  Safety,  in  which  he  set  forth  his  services ;  but,  with  his  wonted  in- 
exactness, he  stated  that  he  had  been  appointed  officer  of  artillery  in  1782, 
whereas  he  received  that  appointment  only  at  the  end  of  1784.  He  pretended 
that  he  had  served  under  the  colours  for  seventeen  years ;  in  reality  the  years 
had  been  twelve.  He  attributed  to  himself  the  successes  of  the  campaign 
in  1794.  This,  by  the  way,  is  done  likewise  by  serious  historians.  But  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  allow  this  claim,  as  he  did  not  reach  Nice  till  the  moment 
when  operations  had  begun,  on  a  plan  already  drawn  up.f  The  Committee 
referred  the  appeal  to  the  War  Office,  which  at  once  pointed  out  the 
inaccuracies. 

On  the  1 6th  August,  Napoleon  received  a  peremptory  order  to  join  his 
corps.  "If,"  so  terminated  the  order,  "your  condition  of  health  prevents  you 
from  undergoing  the  fatigue  of  active  service,  inform  me  of  the  fact,  and  I 
will  ask  the  Committee  to  replace  you."  On  the  reception  of  this  document, 
Bonaparte  rushed  off  to  Barras,  Freron,  and  other  friends,  and  for  the  moment 
the  blow  was  averted. 

His  mind  turned  to  the  East  as  the  only  opening  for  his  ambition.     He 


*  Souvenirs  du  Comte  de  Poni^coulant,  Paris,  i86i,  i.  325, 

t  What  Barras  says  is  possibly  the  truth.  There  was  friction  between  Dumerbion,  the  General  in 
command,  and  the  Commissioners  who  went  with  the  army.  The  General,  at  a  council  of  war,  pro- 
duced a  fictitious  scheme  of  campaign ;  and  Bonaparte  at  once  went  off  to  the  Commissioners  with  it,  and 
reported  it,  with  his  objections  to  it.  The  next  day  Dumerbion  produced  his  real  plan,  and  so  un- 
masked Bonaparte.  It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that  the  plan  was  very  much  like  one  of  those 
executed  afterwards,  with  such  brilliant  success,  by  Napoleon,  and  very  far  superior  to  anything  we 
can  suppose  to  have  come  from  a  general  who  was  incapable  of  following  up  a  success  that  had  been 
gained. 


UNDER   A   CLOUD  103 

said  to  Barras,  "  I  must  find  employment  at  all  costs ;  if  I  cannot  obtain 
service  here,  I  will  tender  myself  as  artilleryman  at  Constantinople." 

But  long  before  this  he  had  thought  of  the  East.  Lucien,  in  his  Memoirs^ 
relates  how  that  when  he  was  in  Corsica  he  had  thought  of  going  to  India,  and 
of  serving  under  the  English  there ;  he  had  even  persuaded  Lucien  to  agree 
to  go  with  him.  Advancement  in  the  English  service,  he  said,  was  quicker 
than  in  the  French.     Moreover,  in  the  East  all  things  were  possible. 

On  the  15th  September,  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  ordered  that 
''  General  Bonaparte,  formerly  requisitioned  to  serve  under  the  orders  of  the 
Committee,  be  struck  off  the  active  list,  in  consequence  of  his  refusal  to  repair 
to  the  post  assigned  to  him."  This  was  the  second  time  that  insubordination 
had  brought  the  same  humiliation  on  him. 

He  does  not  seem  to  have  concerned  himself  greatly  about  the  matter.  In 
his  letter  to  his  brother  Joseph  he  does  not  mention  it,  and  merely  says  that 
there  is  no  more  talk  of  his  going  to  Constantinople. 

The  reason  why  he  bore  the  stroke  so  easily  was  that  he  saw  that  a 
storm  was  brewing,  which  must  inevitably  break  within  a  few  weeks ;  and 
for  this  he  prepared,  by  courting  the  favour  of  the  principal  representatives 
of  all  parties. 

We  may  conclude  this  chapter  with  a  portrait  of  Napoleon  at  this  period, 
resembling  that  already  given  by  Mme.  Junot,  but  drawn  in  greater  detail.  It 
comes  from  Stendhal  (M.  H.  Beyle),  in  18 10  inspector  of  the  imperial  palaces. 
He  had  it  from  a  lady  who  knew  Napoleon  intimately  at  this  period  of  his 
life. 

"  He  was  the  leanest  and  oddest  object  I  ever  cast  my  eyes  on.  According 
to  the  fashion  of  the  time,  he  wore  immense  'dog's  ears,'  which  fell  to  his 
shoulders.  The  singular  and  often  sombre  look  of  an  Italian  does  not 
harmonise  well  with  this  prodigality  of  hair.  Instead  of  giving  one  the  idea  of 
being  a  man  of  genius,  he  struck  me  as  one  whom  it  would  not  be  pleasant  to 
meet  in  the  evening  near  a  wood.  The  dress  of  General  Bonaparte  was  not 
reassuring.  The  redingote  he  wore  was  so  frayed  that  it  gave  him  a  poverty- 
stricken  look,  and  I  could  hardly  believe  at  first  that  this  man  was  a  general. 
But  I  soon  perceived  that  he  was  a  man  of  ability  or  an  oddity.  I  used  to 
think  him  something  like  J.  J.  Rousseau,  as  in  the  portrait  by  Latour.  When 
I  had  seen  this  general  with  the  odd  name  three  or  four  times,  I  learned  to 
excuse  his  exaggerated  '  dog's  ears.'  I  thought  of  a  countryman  who  despises 
the  fashions,  and  who  yet  may  have  some  good  points.  Young  Bonaparte  had 
a  striking  appearance,  and  his  face  lighted  up  when  he  spoke.  If  he  had  not 
been  so  thin  as  to  look  sickly,  one  might  have  noticed  that  his  features  were  full 
of  delicacy.  His  mouth  especially  had  a  contour  full  of  grace.  A  painter,  a 
pupil  of  David,  whom  I  met  at  the  house  of  N.,  told  me  that  his  features  were 
Greek  in  outline,  and  this  made  me  observe  him  more  closely.  Some  months 
later,  after  the  Revolution  of  Vendemiaire,  we  learned  that  the  General  had 
been  presented  to  Mme.  Tallien,  then  the  queen  of  fashion,  and  that  she  had 
been  struck  by  his  appearance.  We  were  not  surprised.  The  fact  is,  that  in 
order  that  he  should  be  favourably  judged,  he  needed  to  be  dressed  less 
wretchedly.  I  remember  that  the  General  spoke  very  well  of  the  siege  of 
Toulon,  anyhow,  in  a  manner  to  interest  and  carry  one  away  with  him.     He 


I04        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

talked  much,  and  became  animated  in  so  doing ;  but,  on  certain  days,  he  did 
not  break  out  of  a  gloomy  silence.  It  was  said  that  he  was  very  poor,  and  was 
as  proud  as  a  Scotchman ;  he  refused  to  go  as  General  to  La  Vendee,  and  to 
quit  the  artillery.  '  That  is  my  arm,'  he  said,  and  this  made  us  girls  laugh,  not 
understanding  how  that  artillery  and  cannons  could  be  spoken  of  as  a  weapon 
like  a  sword.  .  .  .  He  had  none  of  the  appearance  of  a  soldier — no  bluster, 
brag,  nor  roughness.  I  think,  now,  that  one  might  have  read  in  the  lines  of  his 
delicate  mouth,  so  finely  moulded,  that  he  despised  danger,  and  that  danger  did 
not  put  him  in  a  passion." 


XVII 
THE    13TH    VENDEMIAIRE 

(October  4—25,  1795) 

'T"^HE  reaction  against  the  Jacobins,  in  favour  of  constitutional  measures  and 
-*-  security  of  property,  had  grown  in  strength.  The  leaders  of  the  Con- 
vention no  longer  inspired  confidence.  The  terrible  centralisation  of  power 
about  the  Green  Table  alarmed  all  France.  The  men  in  authority  were  Barras, 
Tallien,  Freron,  precisely  those  who  had  previously  set  the  guillotine  in  active 
play.  Freron  had  been  one  of  the  contributors  to  the  ferocious  journal 
conducted  by  Marat,  and  had  written  some  of  its  most  violent  articles. 
Tallien  had  been  one  of  the  extreme  of  the  Mountain  ;  he  had  been  President 
of  the  Assembly  on  the  day  of  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI.  He  had  been 
sent  into  the  west  of  France  to  hunt  out  and  butcher  the  suspects,  and  had 
executed  his  commission  without  compunction.  At  Bordeaux,  in  1793,  he 
had  found  the  most  beautiful  woman  of  the  time,  Madame  Cabarrus,  in  prison, 
had  fallen  in  love  with  her,  released  her,  and  made  her  his  wife.  Barras  had 
been  associated  with  the  butcheries  at  Toulon  and  Marseilles,  was  devoid 
of  principle  ;  he  defrauded  the  Treasury,  and  at  a  period  when  morals 
were  corrupt  as  in  the  worst  days  of  Rome,  took  a  lead  in  shameless 
licentiousness. 

All  France  was  weary  of  the  confusion  in  the  finances,  the  shiftings  in  the 
Government,  the  uncertainty  as  to  the  future.  It  did  not  want  to  have  back 
the  Bourbons,  but  it  wanted  respectable  men  at  the  head  of  government, 
and  security  for  life  and  property.  The  Convention  had  drawn  up  a  new 
Constitution,  the.  third  in  four  years.  The  Radical  Constitution  of  1793 
had  pushed  Republican  principles  to  their  last  consequences.  Of  its  377 
articles,  twenty-two  had  been  devoted  to  the  rights  of  man,  and  nine  only 
to  his  duties. 

"  Hitherto,"  said  Boissy  d'Anglas,  "  the  efforts  of  France  have  been  directed 
solely  to  destroy.  At  present,  when  we  are  neither  silenced  by  the  cries  of 
demagogues,  nor  by  the  oppression  of  tyrants,  we  must  turn  to  our  advantage 
the  crimes  of  the  Monarchy,  the  errors  of  the  Assembly,  the  horrors  of  the 
Decemviral  tyranny,  and  the  calamities  caused  by  Anarchy.  Absolute  equality 
is  a  chimera.     Property  alone  attaches  the  citizen  to  his  country ;  all  who  are 

105 


io6        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

to  have  a  share  in  the  legislation  should  be  possessed  of  some  independent 
income.  All  Frenchmen  are  citizens,  but  domestic  service,  pauperism,  the 
non-payment  of  taxes  must  debar  the  majority  from  exercising  their  rights." 
Accordingly  a  property  qualification  for  the  right  of  exercise  of  franchise  was 
one  of  the  provisions  of  the  new  Constitution. 

"  It  is  time,"  said  Tallien,  "  that  there  should  cease  to  be  a  division  among 
Frenchmen  into  the  classes  of  oppressors  and  oppressed."  Precisely,  but,  as 
all  perceived,  the  men  who  offered  to  effect  this  annealing  process  were  not  to 
be  trusted  with  the  task. 

The  privilege  of  electing  members  for  the  Legislature  was  taken  by  the 
new  Constitution  from  the  great  body  of  electors,  and  was  given  to  the 
Electoral  Colleges.  The  legislative  power  was  divided  between  two  councils, 
that  of  Five  Hundred  and  that  of  the  Ancients,  the  latter  being  the  superior 
house,  passing  or  rejecting  the  laws  that  were  sent  up  to  them  from  below. 
The  age  qualification  for  admission  to  the  Lower  House  was  thirty ;  to  the 
Upper,  forty.  The  executive  power  devolved  on  a  Directory,  composed  of  five 
members.  The  Directors  had  the  disposal  of  the  armies  and  of  the  finances, 
named  the  functionaries,  and  conducted  the  negotiations  with  the  Foreign 
Powers.  They  were  in  relation  with  the  Councils  through  six  responsible 
Ministers,  destined  to  replace  the  twelve  executive  committees  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Public  Safety.  The  Directory  was  to  renew  itself  by  the  annual 
replacement  of  one  of  its  members.  Finally,  as  the  members  of  the  Convention 
were  uneasy  for  themselves,  knowing  that  those  who  fell  out  of  the  seat  of 
office  were  sacrificed  by  those  who  ascended  that  seat,  they  provided  that 
two-thirds  of  the  existing  Convention  should  retain  their  place  in  the  new 
Councils,  and  that  the  electors  should  fill  up  only  the  third. 

The  bourgeois  of  Paris  had  discovered  that  they  were  as  certainly  menaced 
by  the  Have-nots  as  had  been  the  aristocracy.  They  were  entirely  averse  from 
ultra-democratic  principles,  but  had  no  desire  whatever  to  see  the  Monarchy 
restored  along  with  its  abuses.  There  was,  however,  a  large  drifting  mass  of 
the  old  noblesse  in  the  country  and  the  capital,  which  threw  its  weight  into 
whatever  movement  was  initiated  against  the  Government.  This  mass  was 
made  up  of  the  needy  and  desperate  scions  of  old  families  that  had  filled  all 
offices  in  the  State  under  the  ancient  r^^m^,  and  had  alone  the  right  to  officer 
the  army.  These  men  were  impatient  to  recover  their  privileges,  and  were  too 
blind  or  infatuated  to  see  that  what  had  been  blown  to  bits  was  impossible  of 
reconstruction.  They  were,  for  the  most  part,  young,  energetic,  and  daring, 
whereas  the  bourgeoisie  was  timid  and  inert. 

The  new  Constitution  pleased  neither  the  Moderates  nor  the  Reactionaries, 
and  the  provision  relative  to  the  retention  of  their  seats  by  two-thirds  of  the 
representatives  was  peculiarly  distasteful  to  both,  as  it  postponed  the  day  of 
change. 

But  not  only  were  the  concealed  Royalists  and  the  Moderate  Republicans 
dissatisfied  with  the  Convention  and  its  new  Constitution,  but  so  also  was  the 
rabble  of  Have-nots,  which  resented  its  exclusion  from  the  poll. 


THE    13TH   VENDEMIAIRE  107 

The  Constitution,  when  submitted  to  the  electors  of  France,  was  accepted, 
together  with  the  riders  of  the  5th  and  13th  Fructidor  relative  to  the  renewal 
of  the  Councils,  and  that  by  large  majorities.  But  not  so  in  Paris — there  the 
Constitution  of  the  year  III.  was  voted,  but  the  riders  were  rejected.  Paris, 
it  was  evident,  was  about  to  become  a  scene  of  renewed  riot.  The  electoral 
sections  of  Paris  were  united  in  resolve  to  disperse  the  Convention.  They 
could  rely  on  the  Municipal  Guard.  The  Convention  was  likened  to  the  Long 
Parliament  that  had  brought  Charles  I.  to  the  block  ;  and  it  was  hoped  by  the 
reactionaries  that  some  Monk  would  arise  to  clear  the  way  for  a  restoration. 
The  Moderates  did  not  relish  the  prospect  of  retaining  regicides  in  the 
Directory,  invested  with  despotic  power  for  at  least  five  years. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Conventional  were  in  alarm  for  themselves.  They 
lost  no  time  in  submitting  the  new  Constitution  to  the  soldiery,  and  when  it  was 
unanimously  accepted  by  them,  they  knew  that  they  could  reckon  upon  their 
support.  As  to  the  Royalists,  the  Conventional  did  not  greatly  fear  them ;  but 
the  force  and  fury  of  the  extreme  Jacobins  was,  to  them,  alarming.  When  it  came 
to  the  appointment  of  a  general  to  the  regular  troops,  a  difficulty  arose.  They 
were  uncertain  in  whom  to  repose  confidence.  The  ex-painter  Carteaux  was, 
indeed,  too  much  compromised  not  to  be  counted  on  by  the  Conventional, 
but  he  was  incapable  as  a  general.  Menon,  for  lack  of  a  better,  was  allowed 
to  remain  in  command.  He  was  sent  to  disperse  the  electoral  bodies  assembled 
in  the  Theatre  Fran^ais  under  the  protection  of  the  Municipal  Guard,  but, 
instead  of  using  force,  he  entered  into  negotiations.  This  took  place  on  the 
evening  of  the  12th  Vendemiaire  (4th  October).  At  eleven  at  night  the 
Convention  displaced  Menon,  and  transferred  the  command  of  the  troops  to 
Barras,  and  Barras  looked  to  Bonaparte  as  one  in  whom  he  could  place 
reliance.  Compromised  by  his  relations  with  Robespierre,  the  young  man 
must  necessarily  desire  to  revenge  himself  on  the  Moderates,  who  had,  for  six 
months,  pursued  him  with  so  much  animosity.  Interest  and  revenge  combined 
to  attach  him  to  the  Convention.  Moreover,  this  afforded  him  the  only  chance 
of  escaping  from  the  consequences  of  his  dismissal. 

On  the  nth,  Bonaparte  had  received  a  note  from  Barras,  bidding  him 
present  himself  at  his  house  on  the  morrow,  before  noon.  Napoleon  had  no 
hesitation  in  going,  and  measures  had  already  been  concocted  between  them 
before  the  stormy  and  agitated  night  of  the  12th.  By  that  date  all  had  been 
arranged  between  Barras  and  the  young  General  whom  he  introduced  to  the 
Convention. 

According  to  Bonaparte's  own  account,  he  found  the  Deputies  in  a  panic. 
They  expected  to  be  attacked  on  the  morrow.  His  advice  was  asked.  His 
answer  was  compressed  into  one  word — "  Guns." 

The  proposal  so  alarmed  them  that  the  rest  of  the  night  was  spent  without 
their  coming  to  any  decision.  Then,  towards  morning,  the  whole  conduct  of 
affairs  was  put  by  these  incapables  into  Bonaparte's  hands,  with  entreaties  that 
he  would  not  use  force. 

"  Are  you  going  to  wait,"  he  asked  contemptuously,  "  until  the  people  give 


io8        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

you  permission  to  fire  upon  them  ?  I  am  committed  in  this  matter.  You 
have  appointed  me  to  defend  you ;  it  is  right  that  you  should  allow  me 
to  do  so  in  my  own  way."  "After  that,"  as  Napoleon  said  later,  "I 
left  those  lawyers  to  stultify  themselves  with  words,  I  put  my  troops  in 
motion."* 

The  National  Guard,  with  the  sections,  amounted  to  30,000  men,  but  was 
without  artillery,  whereas  the  regulars  had  at  their  disposal  fifty  pieces. 

Of  the  importance  of  the  step  taken  by  the  Conventional  in  invoking 
military  aid,  they  had  no  conception.  Now,  for  the  first  time  in  the  course 
of  the  Revolutionary  drama,  the  standing  army  had  been  called  upon  to  decide 
in  a  political  crisis ;  and  a  young  and  ambitious  officer  had  been  allowed  to 
see  what  he  could  achieve  in  a  Republic,  if  he  had  behind  him  a  body  of 
regulars  on  whom  he  could  rely. 

As  soon  as  Napoleon  was  placed  in  command,  Barras  fell  into  the  back- 
ground ;  and  the  early  morning  was  spent  by  Bonaparte  in  making  his  dis- 
positions. When  day  broke,  the  Tuileries,  in  which  sat  the  Convention,  had 
been  transformed  into  a  fortress.  The  cannon  had  been  brought  into  Paris 
by  Murat  during  the  night. 

As  soon  as  day  broke  on  the  13th  Vendemiaire  (5th  October,  1795),  the 
National  Guard  and  the  members  of  the  sections  marched  from  all  quarters 
upon  the  Tuileries,  with  the  purpose  of  dissolving  and  dispersing  the  Con- 
vention, and  were  not  a  little  surprised  and  disconcerted  to  see  the  cannon 
pointed,  and  soldiers  drawn  up,  ready  to  receive  them  with  a  round  of  grape. 
Nevertheless,  the  Conventionals,  from  the  windows  of  the  Tuileries,  con- 
templated with  even  greater  dismay  the  dense  masses  of  their  opponents 
rolling  up  every  street — a  rising  flood,  threatening  to  engulf  them.  Like  the 
weaklings  they  were,  they  desired  a  compromise,  and  pleaded  with  Bonaparte 
not  to  proceed  to  extremities.  If  Napoleon  could  have  had  his  own  way  he 
would  have  opened  fire  at  once.  But  the  insurgents,  cowed  by  the  exhibition 
of  force  in  front,  drew  back  to  consider  what  should  be  done ;  and  the  Dele- 
gates in  his  rear  were  quaking,  and  seeking  gaps  in  the  ranks  of  their 
defenders  through  which  they  might  slink  home. 

The  day  passed  in  inaction. 

The  National  Guard  and  the  regulars  showed  indications  of  fraternisation. 
If  this  took  place  the  Convention  was  lost,  and  Napoleon's  chance  was  gone. 
Accounts  differ  as  to  which  side  began  the  conflict.  The  decision  was  in 
Bonaparte's  hand.  Unless  the  Convention  succeeded  in  a  signal  manner,  and 
utterly  quelled  the  insurrection,  his  fate  was  sealed.  A  compromise  would 
be  effected  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself.  He  was  well  aware  of  this.  The 
situation  to  him  was  fast  becoming  not  merely  critical,  but  ridiculous.  At 
half-past  four  he  mounted  his  horse.  A  shot  was  fired.  He  issued  orders 
that  the  streets  should  be  cleared ;  and  the  roar  of  cannon  and  the  screams 
of  the  wounded  were  the  response. 

"  It  is  wrongly  stated,"  said  Bonaparte  at  S.  Helena,  "  that  the  action  was 

*  Madame  de  Remusat,  Memoirs  (English  ed.),  i.  146. 


THE    13TH   VENDEMIAIRE 


109 


begun  with  blank  cartridge.  That  would  have  served  only  to  encourage  the 
sections,  and  would  have  endangered  the  troops.  It  is,  however,  true  that, 
after  victory  was  assured,  powder  alone  was  employed." 

Next  day,  a  few  salvos  of  artillery  sufficed  to  disperse  the  knot  of  insur- 
gents who  ventured  to  rally.  "All  is  over,"  wrote  Napoleon  to  Joseph;  "luck 
was  with  us.  .  .  .  We  killed  a  great  number,  and  lost  on  our  side  thirty  men 
killed,  and  sixty  wounded.  We  have  disarmed  the  sections,  and  all  is  quiet. 
As  usual,  I  was  not  hurt.  Happiness  is  mine.  My  salutations  to  Desiree  and 
to  Julie." 


THE    I3TH    VENDEMIAIRE. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


After  this  coup  d'etat,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  elections  should  be  in  favour 
•of  the  Opposition.  The  Convention  was  creating  for  itself  privilege,  and 
maintaining  itself  by  violence.  As  the  electors  manifested  their  ill-will,  the 
Conventional  spirit  was  driven  further,  at  each  renewal  of  the  Councils,  out  of 
the  Legislative  into  the  Executive  body.  The  two-thirds  who  remained  on 
their  benches,  in  their  exasperation  at  the  opposition  manifested  by  the 
•country,  and  desirous,  above  all,  of  conciliating  the  Jacobins,  appointed  five 
regicides  to  form  the  Directory — Barras,  Carnot,  Rewbell,  Letourneur,  and 
Lareveillere-Lepaux.  The  Legislative  body  renewed  itself  by  one-third  every 
year,  whereas  the  Directory  was  renewed  every  fifth  year.  The  result  was  a 
foregone  conclusion — inevitable,  if  the  electors  remained  in  the  same  temper  ; 
the  time  was  not  far  distant  when  the  Directory  would   be  at  war  with  the 


no   THE  LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE 

Councils,  and  as  these  bodies  had  no  means  of  exercising  control,  the  one  over 
the  other,  legally,  it  was  also  inevitable  that  the  arm  of  the  soldier,  now  called 
in  for  the  first  time  to  maintain  the  Convention,  would  be  summoned  to  decide 
the  conflict  that  was  in  prospect  between  them. 

It  would  be  doing  the  ambitious  young  General  an  injustice  to  suppose  that 
he  had  not  the  shrewdness  to  see  this ;  but  he  saw  more  than  this — that  the 
road  to  a  military  despotism  was  surely  prepared.  The  man  who  could  gain 
the  confidence  of  the  soldiery,  the  general  who  could  inspire  them  with 
enthusiasm  for  himself,  would  be  able  at  any  time  to  enact  the  part  of  a 
Cromwell.  Both  Barras  and  Napoleon  were  desirous  of  shifting  on  to  each 
other  the  odium  of  having  shed  the  blood  of  their  fellow  Frenchmen,  on  the 
13th  Vendemiaire.  Accordingly,  Barras  threw  the  whole  responsibility  upon 
his  young  proteg^.  In  a  speech  before  the  Convention  on  the  i8th,  he 
demanded  that  Bonaparte  should  be  reinstated  in  his  grade,  and  should  be 
given  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Interior;  and  he  said  with  emphasis: 
"The  well-considered,  the  prompt  military  arrangements,  whereby  the 
Convention  was  saved  on  the  13th,  were  due  entirely  to  Bonaparte."  The 
latter,  on  his  side,  drew  up  a  report  of  the  events  which  he  intended  for 
publication.  In  it  his  own  part  in  the  affair  is  slurred  over,  and  the  direction 
s  attributed  to  Barras,  and  the  execution  to  Generals  Verdier,  Brune,  and 
Duvergier. 

On  the  20th  Vendemiaire,  he  was  re-established  in  the  artillery,  and  named 
Second  Commandant  of  the  Army  of  the  Interior.  On  the  24th  he  demanded 
the  provisional  brevet  of  General  of  Division,  and  ten  days  after,  on  the  4th 
Brumaire,  that  is  to  say,  on  the  day  on  which  the  National  Convention  held  its 
last  session,  in  which  Barras  resigned  his  Command-in-Chief  of  the  Army  of 
the  Interior,  Bonaparte  replaced  him,  and  received  the  confirmation  of  his  title 
as  General  of  Division. 

Napoleon  at  once,  with  that  characteristic  zeal  for  the  advancement  of  his 
family  which  forms  so  delightful  a  feature  in  his  character,  hastened  to  make 
his  brothers  share  in  his  good  fortune.  Having  removed  from  his  mean 
lodgings  to  the  house  of  the  General  in  Command,  in  the  Rue  Neuve  des 
Capucines,  he  wrote  to  Joseph,  "  I  have  here  house,  table,  and  carriage,  all  at 
your  disposal,"*  and  he  applied  for  a  Consulship  to  be  given  to  this  brother. 
He  removed  Louis  from  school  at  Chalons,  and  again  had  him  appointed 
lieutenant,  and  made  him  his  aide-de-camp ;  for  Lucien  he  obtained  the 
lucrative  place  of  Commissary  of  War  to  the  Army  of  the  North.  Uncle 
Fesch  was  summoned  to  Paris  to  act  as  his  secretary. 

All  at  once,  the  indigent  Corsican  General,  who  had  been  under  a  cloud, 
had  emerged  into  sunshine.  He  who  had  not  known  where  to  look  for  a 
friend,  was  now  intimate  with  every  member  of  the  Government.  He  who 
could  obtain  no  place  for  himself  was  able  to  instal  his  relatives  and  friends  in 
comfortable  berths. 

*  He  wrote  to  him  on  Dec.  4,  "I  have  received  400,000  livres  for  you."  Whence  did  he  get  this? 
Joseph  was  not  as  yet  appointed  to  any  Consulship. 


THE    13TH   VENDEMIAIRE  iii 

Some  days  after  the  13th  Vendemiaire,  Vandamme  said  to  him,  "I  believe 
the  day  will  arrive  when  you  will  have  cause  to  repent  having  fired  on  French- 
men." 

"  Bah  ! "  answered  Bonaparte,  "  I  have  only  set  my  seal  upon  France."* 

It  was  true,  and  the  seal  was  set  in  blood. 

*  Secret  Memoirs ^  Lond.  1815  (by  Charles  Doris). 


XVIII  ; 

JOSEPHINE 

(October  26,  1795— March  9?  1796) 

''  I  ""HE  sudden  rise  of  Napoleon  to  the  Command  of  the  Army  of  the 
-*-  Interior,  at  once  exposed  a  man,  whom  no  one  had  considered  before 
the  13th  Vendemiaire,  to  become  an  object  of  envy  and  observation.  His 
nationality,  his  inability  to  speak  French  without  accent,  and  that  accent 
peculiarly  disagreeable  and  smacking  of  vulgarity,  his  bad  spelling,  his  un- 
couthness  in  society,  his  past  also,  his  intimacy  with  the  Robespierres,  his 
advanced  opinions,  his  irregularities  of  service,  his  compromised  character  in 
Corsica,  about  which  Lacombe  had  a  good  deal  of  curious  information  to  com- 
municate, his  knavery  in  the  matter  of  false  certificates  and  applications  for 
indemnification  for  horses  he  had  already  disposed  of — these  were  now  matters 
much  discussed,  and  discussed  with  that  gall  which  overflows  whenever  one, 
who  was  yesterday  nobody,  is  suddenly  advanced  to  wealth  and  position. 
Bonaparte  was  aware  of  this,  and  to  conceal  his  bad  spelling,  began  to  make 
his  writing  illegible,  and,  to  disguise  his  dialect,  spoke  as  little  as  possible.  He 
was  now  a  good  deal  in  society — such  society  as  was  gathered  about  Barras, 
one  of  beautiful  women,  with  the  loosest  of  morals,  but  with  the  charm  and 
ease  of  the  old  regime.  He  was  uncomfortable  in  it,  ambitious  to  attract 
attention  to  himself,  to  push  his  way,  but  ignorant  how  to  make  his  per- 
sonality other  than  ridiculous. 

Instinctively  he  felt  that  the  ground  under  his  feet  was  on  fire.  With  his 
pride  wounded  by  the  smiles  and  whispers  which  his  gaucheries  provoked,  he 
•desired  to  get  away  from  uncongenial  surroundings,  which  fascinated  at  the 
same  time  that  they  frightened  him,  or  to  find  the  means  of  adoption  into  the 
charmed  circle. 

On  October  the  6th,  he  had  sent  his  love  to  Desiree  Clary  for  the  last  time. 
He  no  longer  required  her  dower.  He  soon  saw  that  he  must  look  elsewhere 
for  a  wife — he  must  find  one  who  would  gain  for  him  respect  in  that  brilliant 
society  that  dazzled  him. 

After  the  13th  Vendemiaire  he  abandoned,  at  all  events  for  a  time,  the 
scheme  of  seeking  his  fortunes  in  the  East,  and  turned  his  eyes  on  Italy.  He 
had  not  studied  the  life  of  Caesar  in  vain.  If  that  had  taught  him  anything,  it 
had   taught  him   that  the  road   to   a  dictatorship  was   to   be  gained  through 


PORTRAIT   OF    BONAPARTE   AT    THIS    PERIOD. 
By  Gu^rin. 


OF -HE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 
j£d?.JFORNiJ^ 


JOSEPHINE  115 

victories  in  a  country  outside  the  Republic,  and  an  absolute  control  obtained 
over  an  army  through  those  victories. 

The  events  of  the  13th  Vendemiaire  had  relieved  him  from  his  pecuniary 
embarrassments,  and  this  change  in  his  circumstances  was  beginning  already  to 
make  a  corresponding  change  in  his  appearance. 

Barras,  a  Count  from  Provence,  fond  of  pomp  and  luxury,  kept  horses, 
equipages,  mistresses,  maintained  some  state,  formed  a  little  court,  presided 
over  by  the  beautiful  Madame  Tallien,  sultana-in-chief  of  his  seraglio,  affecting 
the  airs,  refinement,  and  exclusiveness  of  that  which  had  been  swept  away  by 
the  Revolution.  Into  this  circle  Bonaparte  was  hardly  admitted  ;  the  beautiful 
women  that  formed  it  disliked  his  gloomy  brow  and  ungracious  manners.  The 
only  family  of  position  that  cared  to  allow  him  to  sit  at  its  table  was  that  of 
De  Permon,  but  the  widow  Permon  was  in  reduced  circumstances. 

The  Parisians,  weary  of  the  shadow  of  death  which  had  so  long  hung  over 
the  capital,  and  the  scent  of  blood  that  was  wafted  on  every  breeze,  shut  their 
eyes  to  the  misery  that  still  prevailed,  the  poor  dying  of  starvation  in  the 
garrets,  and  in  their  volatile  mood  broke  out  into  a  flutter  of  fashion  and 
glitter  of  display.     Napoleon  endeavoured  to  make  display  as  well. 

"  The  modest  cabriolet  was  converted  into  a  superb  equipage,  and  the 
man  himself  was  no  longer  the  same.  But  the  friends  of  his  youth  were  still 
received  when  they  made  their  morning  calls.  They  were  invited  to  grand 
dejeuners,  which  were  sometimes  attended  by  ladies ;  and,  among  others,  by 
the  beautiful  Madame  Tallien  and  her  friend,  the  amiable  Madame  de 
Beauharnais,  to  whom  Bonaparte  had  begun  to  pay  attention.  '  In  the 
month  of  February,  1796,  my  husband,'  writes  Madame  Bourrienne,  'was 
arrested  at  seven  in  the  morning  by  a  party  of  men,  armed  with  muskets, 
on  the  charge  of  being  a  returned  emigrant.  He  was  torn  from. his  wife  and 
child,  only  six  months  old,  and  was  barely  allowed  time  to  dress  himself  .  .  . 
I  and  his  friends  ran  about  everywhere,  trying  to  find  somebody  to  rescue 
him,  and,  among  the  rest,  Bonaparte  was  appealed  to.  It  was  with  great 
difficulty  he  could  be  seen.  I  told  him  what  had  happened  to  my  husband, 
whose  life  was  at  stake.  He  appeared  to  feel  very  little  for  the  situation  of 
his  friend,  but  determined  to  write  to  Merlin,  the  Minister  of  Justice.' " 

It  is  painful  to  learn  that  Napoleon  made  no  further  effort  to  save  the 
friend  who  had  maintained  him  in  his  days  of  poverty,  and  that  the  escape 
of  Bourrienne  from  the  guillotine  was  in  no  way  due  to  his  interference,  but 
to  the  humanity  of  the  judge,  Lemaire,  before  whom  he  was  brought* 

As  Madame  Bourrienne  mentions,  Bonaparte  at  this  time  began  to  lay 
siege  to  the  heart  of  Josephine  de  Beauharnais,  widow  of  the  Marquis  de 
Beauharnais,  whose  head  had  fallen  on  the  scaffold. 

Marie-Josephe-Rose  de  Tascher  de  la  Pagerie  was  born  on  the  23rd  June, 
1763,  in  Martinique,  where  her  father  was  harbour-master,  and  owned  a  little 
property.  She  came  to  France  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  and  married  the  Viscount 
Alexandre  de  Beauharnais  in  1779.  After  their  marriage  the  young  couple 
went  to  Paris,  where  their  son  Eugene,  afterwards  Viceroy  of  Italy,  was  born 

*  Memoirs  of  Bourrienne,  i.  32-3, 


ii6        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

in  1780.  In  April,  1783,  she  became  the  mother  of  that  very  charming  but 
sad  woman,  who  was  to  be  known  in  history  as  Queen  Hortense. 

The  young  couple  did  not  agree.  There  were  domestic  storms,  and  they 
separated.  Josephine  went  back  to  Martinique,  but  on  the  death  of  her  father 
in  1790  returned  to  France.  Her  husband,  who  had  been  a  zealous  Republican, 
and  commanded  the  Army  of  the  Rhine,  was  denounced  and  arrested  in  1794. 
He  Was  executed  on  the  23rd  July.  Josephine  had  also  been  imprisoned  on 
the  20th  April  in  the  same  year.  She  owed  her  release  to  the  citoyenne 
Cabarrus,  who  had  won  the  affections  of  Tallien  ;  and  she  became  her  fast 
friend,  and  shared  with  her  the  equivocal,  or  more  than  equivocal,  favours  of 
Barras.  She  could  not  equal  Mme.  Tallien  in  beauty ;  her  features  were 
irregular,  she  had  teeth  "  like  cloves,"  but  carefully  concealed  them  as  much 
as  possible.  Her  not  very  abundant  hair  was  chestnut,  her  skin  olive,  she  had 
a  delicately-formed  mouth,  very  soft,  beautiful  eyes,  with  a  somewhat  dreamy 
expression  in  them,  and  long  lashes.  But  her  great  charm  lay  in  her  perfect 
gracefulness  of  form  and  ease  of  motion.  Her  voice,  moreover,  was  so  musical, 
that  long  after,  when  Empress,  the  servants  in  the  Tuileries  would  halt  in 
the  corridors  to  listen  to  its  melody.  She  had  a  winning  manner  and  a  kindly 
heart.  She  was  very  averse  to  strong  emotion ;  sorrows  with  her  were  transient. 
Her  feelings  were  shallow.  Tears  lay  very  near  the  surface,  and  were  easily 
dried,  as  they  were  easily  produced.  Later  on,  after  she  had  interceded  for 
the  life  of  the  Due  d'Enghien  and  had  failed,  she  put  her  concern  quickly 
aside,  and  began  to  trifle  in  her  garden.  "  Owing  to  her  natural  levity  and 
fickleness,"  says  Mme.  de  Remusat,  "she  excessively  disliked  painful  or  lasting 
impressions.     Her  feelings  were  quick,  but  extraordinarily  evanescent." 

Meneval,  successor  of  Bourrienne  as  secretary  to  Napoleon,  says  : — 

"  She  was  irresistibly  attractive.  Her  beauty  was  not  regular,  but  she  had 
grace  more  beautiful  than  beauty,  according  to  La  Fontaine.  She  had  the 
soft  abandon,  the  supple  and  elegant  movements,  and  the  graceful  carelessness 
of  the  Creoles.  Her  temper  was  always  the  same.  She  was  kind,  affable,  and 
indulgent  with  everyone,  without  difference  of  persons.  She  had  neither 
superiority  of  mind  nor  much  learning,  but  her  exquisite  politeness,  her  full 
acquaintance  with  society,  with  the  Court,  and  with  their  innocent  artifices, 
made  her  always  know  precisely  the  best  thing  to  do  or  say."* 

When  Talleyrand  was  asked  about  her,  "  Avait  elle  de  I'esprit  ? "  he 
answered,  "  Elle  s'en  passait  superieurement  bien."f 

Poor  Josephine!  Her  name  disarms  comment  on  her  frailties,  so  deep 
and  tender  is  the  feeling  with  which  she  inspires  all  who  consider  her  as  the 
wife  of  Napoleon,  and  pity  her  for  her  divorce.  Recently  the  memoirs  of 
the  vilest  of  men,  Paul  Barras,  have  been  given  to  the  world,  in  which  he  pours 
forth  what  may  certainly  be  put  down  as  malignant  calumny  against  a  weak 
and  wronged  woman.  We  know  that  this  coquettish  and  frivolous  soul  did 
not   pass   unscathed   through  such  a   period   as  that  of  the  Terror  and  the 

*  Meneval,  Napoleon  et  Marie  Louise,  Brux.  1843,  i.  227, 
t  Diary  of  Hhnry  Greville,  Lond.  1883. 


JOSEPHINE   AT    MALMAISON. 
By  Prud'hon. 


JOSEPHINE 


119 


Directorate,  when]  morality  was  at  its  lowest  ebb ;  but  out  of  that  troubled 
and  muddy  past  she  emerged  to  be  the  true  and  blameless  wife  of  the  First 
Consul  and  of  the  Emperor,  and  to  win  the  heart  of  all  France. 

Several  versions  exist  relative  to  the  causes  that  drew  Bonaparte  and 
Madame  de  Beauharnais  together.  The  fable  is  very  generally  told  that  after 
the  disarmament  of  the  Sections,  young  Eugene  Beauharnais  came  to 
Napoleon  to  entreat  for  the 
sword  of  his  father  that  had 
been  confiscated.  Bonaparte 
favoured  the  story,  and  it  is 
possible  there  may  have  been 
some  shadow  of  truth  in  it  ; 
but  it  is  very  improbable,  as 
the  friend  of  Barras  would 
most  assuredly  have  been  free 
from  the  domiciliary  visits 
of  the  police  after  the  13th 
Vendemiaire.  At  S.  Helena, 
Bonaparte  told  another  story 
that  has  more  of  likelihood 
in  it. 

"  I  saw  my  wife  for  the 
first  time  at  Barras'  house, 
that  woman  who  exercised 
so  great  an  influence  on  my 
life,  and  whose  memory  will 
always  be  dear  to  me. 

"  I  was  not  insensible  to 
the  charms  of  women,  but  up 
to  this  time  they  had  not 
spoiled  me;  and  my  character 
rendered  me  extremely  shy 
in  their  company.  Madame 
de  Beauharnais  was  the  first 
who  reassured  me.  She  ad- 
dressed many  flattering  re- 
marks to  me,  relative  to  my 
military  talents,  one  day  when 

I  was  seated  near  her.  This  bit  of  praise  intoxicated  me ;  I  addressed 
myself  continually  to  her ;  I  followed  her  about  everywhere.  I  became 
passionately  fond  of  her,  and  it  was  known  in  our  society  long  before  I  dared 
to  tell  her  of  it. 

"  My  feelings  were  talked  about.  Barras  spoke  to  me  on  the  matter.  I 
had  no  reason  to  deny  it.  'Very  well,'  said  he,  'you  must  marry  Madame 
Beauharnais.  You  have  a  rank  and  talents  to  carry  you  on  ;  but  you  are 
isolated,  without  personal  fortune,  and  without  relations.  You  must  marry, 
that  will  give  you  aplomb.  Madame  Beauharnais  is  agreeable  and  lively,  but 
she  is  a  widow.  That  is  nothing  nowadays  when  women  play  no  part.  They 
must  marry  to  have  any  value.     You  are  a  man  of  character,  you  will  make 


THE  FIRST  INTERVIEW  BETWEEN  BONAPARTE  AND  JOSEPHINE. 
From  a  painting  by  Gervex. 


I20        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


your  career.  You  visit  her  ;  do  you  wish  me  to  negotiate  the  matter  for  you  ? ' 
1  awaited  the  reply  with  anxiety.  It  was  favourable ;  Madame  de  Beau- 
harnais  gave  me  her  hand." 

It  was  precisely  because  Josephine  was  at  all  points  the  contrast  to 
Napoleon,  that  she  exercised  so  great  a  power  over  his  heart.  He  had  never 
associated  with  ladies  of  culture  and  refinement  of  manner,  except  only  with 
Madame  Permon,  and  she  did  not  invite  him  to  her  table  to  meet  her  aris- 
tocratic lady  friends.  His  own  mother  was  uneducated,  and  though  a  good 
woman,  eminently  unpolished.  His  brother  Lucien's  wife  was  not  able  even 
to  sign  her  name  in  the  marriage  register.  The  soap-boiler's  daughters  were 
amiable  nonentities.  For  the  first  time  he  was  brought  within  the  halo  of 
culture,  and  it  bewildered  and  bewitched  him. 


PORTRAIT   OF  JOSEPHINE. 
From  a  coloured  engraving  by  Bonneville. 


PORTRAIT   OF   BONAPARTE. 
From  a  coloured  engraving  by  Bonneville. 


The  marriage  was  civilly  contracted  on  the  9th  March,  1796.*  Tallien  and 
Barras  were  the  witnesses.  On  the  ring  which  Bonaparte  placed  on  his  bride's 
finger  was  the  fatalistic  inscription,  *'  Au  Destin." 

It  has  been  said  by  many  that  Napoleon's  marriage  was  provoked  by  his 
ambition,  or  it  is  allowed  that  though  he  really  was  attracted  to  Josephine,  yet 
that  the  main  incentive  was  ambition — the  desire  to  have  the  command  of  the 
Army  of  Italy,  which  Barras  had  promised  to  give  him  as  a  marriage 
portion. 

That  Bonaparte  was  really  madly  in  love  with  Josephine,  is  clear  enough 
from  his  passionate  letters  to  her  when  on  his  Italian  campaign,  that  have  been 
published. 

"  In  this  volume,"  says  Georges  Dury,  "are  to  be  found  the  authentic  letters 
of  Bonaparte  to  the  woman  he  has  just  married.  I  will  content  myself  with 
asking  any  candid  man  who  has  read  them,  if  it  was  not  the  truest,  the  deepest 
love  which  dictated,  between  battles,  these  beautiful  and  burning  pages  to  the 
man  who  wrote  them?     True,  Bonaparte  may  have  later  entertained  doubts, 

*  It  really  seemed  impossible  morally  for  the  Bonapartes  to  tell  the  truth  about  their  ages.  Napoleon, 
Joseph,  and  Lucien  all  gave  themselves  out  at  their  respective  marriages  to  have  been  born  at  the  same 
place,  Ajaccio,  and  in  the  same  year,  1768.  Josephine  also  gave  herself  out  as  younger  by  ten  years 
than  she  really  was. 


JOSEPHINE 


121 


suspicions,  as  to  Josephine's  virtue.  And,  indeed,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the 
indiscretions  of  this  most  charming,  but  also  most  frivolous,  of  women,  furnished 
matter  enough  for  grievous  discoveries.  Look  at  her  portrait  by  Isabey,  which 
dates  precisely  from  this  period.  The  bird-like  head,  all  dishevelled,  expresses 
coquetry,  thoughtlessness,  an  undefinable  frailty  and  inconstancy,  characteristic 
perhaps  even  then,  as  it  had  been  in  the  past,  of  her  virtue.  It  is  none  the  less 
a  certainty  that  Bonaparte  believed  in  her,  and  loved  her  ardently  and  blindly ; 
that  passion  alone  made  him  wish  for  and  resolve  upon  this  marriage  ;  and 
that,  if  anyone  calculated  in  this  affair,  if  it  be  absolutely  necessary  to  suppose 
that  calculation  existed,  it  would  be  Josephine;  at  all  events -it  was  not  the 
man  of  genius  desperately  smitten,  smitten  'like  a  fool;  who  was  dying  with 
love  at  the  feet  of  this  pretty  doll.'*  And  the  charms  and  grace  of  Josephine 
— that  languid  grace  of  the  rose  whose  bloom  is  beginning  to  fade — so  entirely 
took  possession  of  Napoleon,  that  it  never  wholly  left  his  soul.  Through  all 
the  crises  of  his  tragic  existence,  in  spite  of  weariness,  acts  of  infidelity, 
divorce,  his  second  marriage,  in  spite  of  all,  Napoleon  would  love  this  woman 
unto  death."t 

*  Memoirs  of  Barras^  1895,  ii.  xvi.  t  Ibid.  ii.  xiv. 


/'>Vi-t#»«/v« 9 y-^^.^^^^^^^ 


Or*^^ 


j-^^-^:!^^ 

o-*^^ 


W< 


LETTER    FROM   BONAPARTE   TO  JOSEPHINE. 


XIX 


THE    ITALIAN    CAMPAIGN 


(March  io— November,  1796) 


"j^TAPOLEON'S  honeymoon  lasted  just  forty-eight  hours,  and  during  the 
-^  ^  greater  portion  of  it  he  was  engaged  with  maps  and  letters ;  then  he 
hastened  to  Nice  to  assume  the  command  of  the  Army  of  Italy. 

This  army,  under  Scherer — a  general  capable  of  winning  a  battle,  but  not  of 
reaping  the  fruits  of  victory — had  fought  and  defeated  the  allied  troops  of 
Sardinia  and  Austria  at  Loano,  on  November  24th,  1795,  and  had  then  retired 

to  hibernate  in  the  Alps.     There  it  sat,  shivering, 
starving,  inactive. 

The    administration    of    the    army 
was  in  confusion.      The  soldiers  were 
not    paid,    were    ill-fed,    and     barely 
clothed.      The    Commissioners    en- 
gaged on  the  Commissariat  sought 
to  fill  their  own  pockets  at  the  cost 
of  the  soldiers.     And  those  at  the 
head  of  the  State — Barras  and  his 
fellows — were     too     unscrupulous 
themselves    not    to    wink    at    their 
dishonesties. 

Scherer  was  discouraged,  and 
entreated  to  be  allowed  to  send  in  his 
resignation.  The  Directors  in  Paris  were 
at  their  wits'  end,  and  in  their  difficulty, 
turned  to  Bonaparte,  who  knew  both  what 
had  to  be  done,  and  how  to  do  it.  "  Les 
cinq  Sires"  were  anxious  to  be  rid  of  the  man  who  had  assisted  them  on 
the  13th  Vendemiaire,  who  alarmed  them  by  his  indefatigable  activity,  and  by 
his  assumption  of  the  airs  of  a  protector.  Not  one  of  them  had  the  wit  to 
discern  that  by  committing  the  Army  of  Italy  into  his  hands,  they  were 
furnishing  him  with  the  weapon  wherewith  he  might  terrorise  and  finally 
disperse  them. 

Scherer  was  allowed  to  resign,  and  Bonaparte  was  put  in  his  place. 

122 


MEDALLION    OF   BONAPARTE. 
By  Boizot. 


THE    ITALIAN    CAMPAIGN  123 

The  Directory  was  aware  that  they  had  entrusted  great  power  to  a  man 
who  was  headstrong  and  resolute ;  they  accordingly  adopted  measures  to  place 
checks  on  him,  and  to  reserve  to  themselves  supreme  control  over  the  army ; 
and  they  let  him  understand  that  with  them  lay  all  authority  to  make  peace, 
and  even  an  armistice.  A  few  days  before  he  left  Paris,  they  furnished  him 
with  detailed  instructions  relative  to  the  plan  of  the  campaign  in  which  he  was 
about  to  engage ;  they  had  indeed  used  his  suggestions  which  had  been 
previously  submitted  to  the  War  Office,  but  had  not  followed  them  implicitly. 
He  was  enjoined^to  cross  the  Maritime  Alps,  and  to  separate  the  forces  of 
Sardinia  from  those  of  Austria,  as  he  had  proposed  ;  but  then,  instead  of 
forcing  Piedmont  to  sue  for  peace,  he  was  to  provoke  war  with  Genoa,  by 
wresting  from  that  Republic  certain  portions  of  its  territory,  and  then  to  push 
on  through  Lombardy,  strike  at  Milan,  and  throw  the  Austrians  behind  the 
Adige.  The  plan  was  as  injudicious  as  it  was  impracticable.  He  was,  in  fact, 
required  to  needlessly  exasperate  and  drive  into  war  a  State  in  his  rear,  with  a 
second  State  in  the  same  position,  humbled  but  unreduced,  to  join  hands  and 
cut  his  communications.  Napoleon  was  well  aware  of  the  absurdity  of  the 
instructions  given  him,  and  resolved  not  to  carry  them  out  where  inconvenient. 

The  entire  military  system  in  France  had  gone  through  a  radical  renovation, 
mainly  under  the  direction  of  Dubois  de  Crance ;  and  this  renovation  had  been 
imposed  on  it  by  circumstances — by  the  coalition  of  the  European  powers 
against  the  Republic,  its  menacing  attitude,  and  by  the  defection  of  the  officers 
who  had  emigrated.  Under  the  old  system  there  was  no  unity  of  direction  or 
of  action.  The  Convention  suppressed  all  the  ancient  denominations  of 
Lieutenant-Colonel,  Colonel  Marechal-de-camp,  Lieutenant-General,  and 
Marshal  of  France,  and  replaced  them  by  those  9f  Head  of  Battalion  or 
Squadron,  Chief  of  Brigade,  General  of  Division,  or  General-in-Chief  It 
organised  its  armies  into  Demi-Brigades,  Brigades,  and  Divisions.  Every  corps 
d'armee  was  composed  of  two  divisions,  and  every  division  of  two  brigades. 

"  The  Greeks,"  said  Saint-Just,  "  conquered  by  the  phalanx,  the  Romans  by 
the  legion,  and  the  French  will  be  victorious  through  the  demi-brigade." 

On  the  i6th  August,  1793,  the  famous  decree  had  been  passed  that  called 
all  Frenchmen  into  the  ranks  : — 

"The  French  people  declare,  by  the  organ  of  their  representatives,  that 
they  will  rise  in  a  body  in  defence  of  their  liberty,  their  constitution,  and  to 
deliver  their  territory  from  invasion.  .  .  .  The  young  will  go  into  battle ;  the 
married  men  will  forge  arms,  and  transport  the  material  of  war ;  the  women 
will  make  tents,  clothing,  and  will  serve  in  the  hospitals  ;  the  children  will 
make  lint ;  the  old  men  will  be  carried  out  into  public  places  to  excite  the 
courage  of  the  warriors,  and  to  preach  hatred  of  Kings  and  the  unity  of  the 
Republic." 

But  this  was  not  all.  On  the  26th,  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  had 
been  created,  to  give  unity  of  direction  to  the  vast  force  that  had  been  brought 
into  existence.  This  consisted  eventually  of  nine  members,  under  them  twelve 
commissions,  amongst  which  was  that  of  war.     At  the  bottom  was  the  entire 


124        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

nation,  from  whence  to  draw  supplies  of  men  and  material ;  at  the  top  the 
Committee  of  Nine ;  between  them  the  simplest  and  most  effective  of 
mechanism  ;  and,  as  agents  to  watch  the  operation  of  the  machine,  Com- 
missioners, delegated  from  the  Convention,  with  every  army,  two  to  observe 
the  army  in  the  field,  and  two  to  have  surveillance  over  the  fortified  places 
and  garrisons,  with  power  to  see  to  everything,  assure  supplies,  attend  to 
essentials,  and  see  to  the  execution  of  details.* 

Formerly  every  staff  had  its  own  collection  of  maps  and  memoirs,  relative 
to  the  topography  of  the  country  with  which  it  was  engaged  ;  hence,  vast 
confusion  as  the  various  staffs  shifted  their  fields  of  operation.  Now  was 
formed  one  central  depot  of  maps  and  plans  for  army  and  navy.  Formerly 
hereditary  rank,  title,  court  favour,  had  determined  promotion.  Now  any  man, 
so  long  as  he  had  the  requisite  ability,  was  capable  of  rising  to  the  highest 
rank  in  the  army.  And  what  men  there  were  that  rose  out  of  the  cauldron  of 
war  !  Bernadotte,  the  saddler's  son  ;  Murat  issued  from  a  little  public-house  ; 
Augereau,  the  child  of  a  domestic  servant ;  Massena,  the  Jewish  waif  and  stray. 

The  armies  of  France  in  1795  numbered  531,253  men.  The  infantry  of 
the  line  comprised  a  hundred  demi-brigades  of  three  battalions  each,  each 
of  the  latter  consisting  of  nine  companies.  All  this  host  was  divided  into  nine 
armies. 

At  the  moment  when  Bonaparte  took  the  command  of  that  of  Italy,  this 
army  consisted  of  a  nominal  force  of  60,282  men  ;  but,  what  with  the  sick  and 
the  garrison  troops,  the  effective  force  was  reduced  to  37,775  men. 

As  head  of  his  staff  Napoleon  had  Berthier,  son  of  a  surveyor,  eminently 
qualified  to  understand  the  value  of  topographical  features,  and  a  ready  and 
expert  hand  at  making  maps.  As  aides-de-camp,  his  trusty  friends  Junot  and 
Marmont,  his  brother  Louis,  also  Joachim  and  Leonard. 

The  army  which  Scherer  had  been  incapable  of  appreciating,  because  it 
was  hungry,  shoeless,  and  in  rags,  was  precisely  fitted,  by  the  ordeal  of  priva- 
tion  it  had  undergone,  to  serve  the  purpose  designed  for  it.  It  had  been 
toughened  by  hard  experience ;  it  had  been  tried  against  the  enemy,  and  had 
been  successful.  The  structure  given  it  by  the  new  organisation  endowed  it 
with  a  mobility  not  possessed  by  the  armies  under  the  old  system,  such  as 
those  of  Savoy  and  Austria.  The  generals  of  the  latter  were  governed  by 
ancient  doctrines  as  to  how  to  move,  how  to  conduct  hostilities,  as  to  what 
was  legitimate  warfare  and  what  was  not.  They  were,  moreover,  bound  hand 
and  foot  by  their  own  governments,  allowed  to  take  no  step  till  it  had  been 
debated  and  sanctioned  at  Vienna  and  Turin ;  consequently  unable  to  seize  on 
an  opportunity  when  one  presented  itself,  that  is,  supposing  they  had  the 
ability  to  see  when  such  opportunities  arose.  Later,  Bonaparte  wrote  of 
them  : — 

"  My  military  successes  are  great ;  but,  then,  how  has  the  Emperor  been 
served  ?     His  soldiers  are  good  and  brave,  though  heavy,  and  not  active,  com- 

*  Jung  (Th. ),  Bonaparte  et  son  Tenips^  Paris,  1880,  vol.  iii.,  and  more  fully  in  his  VArnice  et  la 
Rivolution  ;  Dubois-Crance,  1884. 


THE    ITALIAN    CAMPAIGN  '  125 

pared  with  ours.  But  what  officers !  They  are  simply  detestable !  The 
generals  who  have  been  opposed  to  me  were  inept.  Beaulieu  knew  nothing 
of  the  localities  in  Italy;  Wurmser  was  deaf,  and  so  slow,  that  he  never  could 
'do  anything ;  Alvinzi  was  impotent.  They  have  been  accused  of  having  been 
gained  by  me.  That  is  untrue  ;  I  never  attempted  anything  of  the  kind.  But 
what  was  true,  as  I  can  prove,  was  that  not  one  of  these  generals  had  got 
a  staff  in  which  several  of  the  principals  were  not  sold  to  me.  Consequently, 
I  not  only  saw  all  their  plans,  but  knew  all  their  projects,  and  I  upset  them 
while  still  under  discussion." 

Moreover,  there  were  mutual  jealousies  between  the  Sardinian  and  the 
Austrian  commanders,  as  well  as  between  their  troops  ;  and,  more  than  that, 
the  officers  in  each  army  were  full  of  resentment  the  one  against  the  other, 
because  they  saw  men  of  rank,  with  empty  skulls,  thrust  over  their  heads,  not 
for  their  merit,  but  because  titled. 

In  the  French  army  officers  and  soldiers  were  profoundly  attached  to 
Republican  institutions,  not  because  they  had  thought  them  out,  but  because 
they  felt  that  they  had  passed  out  of  an  oppressive  atmosphere  into  the 
breezy  freshness  of  liberty,  in  which  they  could  fill  their  lungs.  They  had 
suffered  for  the  Republic  ;  they  had  seen  all  Europe  leagued  against  it,  and 
they  were  resolved,  heart  and  soul,  from  the  first  general  to  the  least  drummer- 
boy,  not  to  allow  the  foreigners  to  dictate  to  them  how  they  were  to  be 
governed. 

This  is  the  description  given  of  the  army  by  a  Royalist  agent : — 

"  The  discipline  is  severe  and  precise ;  punishments  are  rigorous.  Sub- 
ordination carried  to  an  extreme,  so  great  is  the  distance  between  the  officer 
and  the  soldier  when  in  service.  All  that  is  said  about  the  familiarity  of  the 
latter  with  his  officer  is  untrue.  Out  of  the  ranks  he  speaks  freely  of  his 
•officers.  The  French  soldier  is  prompt  to  grumble.  He  taxes  Bonaparte 
with  being  a  thief  and  a  coquin.  But  the  same  soldier  will  obey  him  blindly 
to-morrow,  because  in  the  first  place  he  esteems  his  personal  bravery;  and 
secondly,  he  believes  him  to  be  a  very  clever  general,  and  he  knows,  moreover, 
that  he  must  perish  or  obey,  for  the  general  will  have  no  scruple  in  dealing 
promptly  with  a  man  neglectful  of  his  duty  or  guilty  of  treason.  Thus, 
although  he  may  abuse  him,  he  will  not  allow  anyone  else  to  do  so  ;  he  will 
curse  him,  but  not  suffer  another  to  do  that.  Then,  again,  Bonaparte  has 
succeeded  in  inspiring  them  with  a  sovereign  contempt  for  their  enemies,  and 
this  serves  to  duplicate  their  courage."* 

A  second  great  advantage  possessed  by  Bonaparte,  was  that  he  knew  the 
ground  on  which  he  was  to  fight.  This  knowledge  he  had  acquired  when  he 
was  on  his  way  back  to  Nice  from  Genoa ;  he  had  then  given  it  special  atten- 
tion with  a  view  to  future  military  operations.  This  knowledge  he  shared  with 
the  Sardinian  General,  and  the  Austrian  opposed  to  him.  But  some  men  see 
a  thing  every  day,  and  learn  nothing  from  it,  whereas  another  at  a  glance, 
on  a  hasty  visit,  grasps  all  the  situations  and  learns  everything  of  the  topo- 
_graphy  that  he  desires  to  know.     There  was  a  third  advantage  Bonaparte 

*  Letter  of  the  Comte  d'Aatraigues  in  Jung,  iii.  151. 


126        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

enjoyed  over  those  opposed  to  him.  The  French  army  had  been  sifted  and 
resifted,  till  every  officer  who  was  not  a  thorough  Republican  had  been  sifted 
out.  It  was  about  to  enter  Italy,  that  had  long  groaned  under  feudal  and 
ecclesiastical  bondage.  The  ferment  in  France  had  cast  its  spores  into  the 
north  of  Italy,  and  the  number  of  those  who  desired  revolution  therein  was 
great.  At  Bazaluno,  in  Cortona,  on  the  feast  of  Corpus  Christi,  the  citizens 
and  peasants  adopted  the  tricolor  cockade,  and  marched  about  shouting, 
"  Long  live  liberty  ! "  An  eye-witness  describes  the  condition  of  Piedmont  at 
this  moment.  "  The  King  of  Sardinia  has  no  money  for  the  war.  The  people 
at  Turin  are  afraid  of  the  Austrian  troops.  The  latter  patrol  the  streets,  and 
break  up  every  knot  of  three  or  four  persons.  Spies  are  everywhere,  in  the 
cafes  and  gardens,  the  promenades  and  eating-houses.  Every  day  some  of 
the  citizens  are  being  seized  and  imprisoned,  and  no  more  is  heard  of  them. 
The  peasants  in  the  country,  in  spite  of  the  sermons  of  the  priests  against  the 
French,  show  impatience  at  their  slavery  and  misery.  The  desertion  among 
both  Austrian  and  Piedmontese  troops  is  continual.  Even  the  officers  are 
not  paid."* 

Consequently,  Napoleon  found  no  difficulty  in  bribing  officers  among  the 
enemy,  to  furnish  him  with  information,  and  he  was  sure  everywhere  of  being 
welcomed  by  the  peasantry  as  a  deliverer.  Such,  accordingly,  were  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  campaign  in  Italy  was  begun  by  Napoleon.  The  same 
conditions  had  existed  before,  but  Scherer  had  been  incapable  of  understanding 
and  availing  himself  of  them.  The  day  after  Bonaparte  had  been  appointed  to 
the  command,  he  called  the  Directors  together,  and  said  to  them  :  "  I  require 
800,000  livres  in  specie  for  the  start,  and  to  cover  the  first  success.  I  will  conquer 
or  perish.  If  for  a  moment  I  can  get  a  footing  on  the  enemy's  territory,  from 
that  moment  I  will  not  demand  of  you  another  crown  for  my  army." 

And  to  this  th6  Directory  had  consented.  The  army  was  to  feed,  clothe^ 
and  pay  itself  at  the  cost  of  the  Italians.  This  had  been  Wallenstein's 
system  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  to  which  the  Emperor  Francis  had  given  a 
reluctant  consent  in  a  moment  of  desperation.  It  was  that  upon  which  the 
representatives  of  Liberty,  the  advocates  of  Equality  and  Fraternity,  agreed, 
and  which  Napoleon  was  to  pursue  throughout  Europe  for  eighteen  years.  In  a 
word,  this  invasion,  under  the  idea  of  emancipating  the  people  of  Italy  from 
tyranny,  was  to  be  a  marauding  expedition  like  that  of  the  Black  Prince,  when 
he  ravaged  Guyenne  from  Bordeaux  to  Toulouse. 

On  the  26th  March,  1796,  Bonaparte  arrived  at  Nice.  He  was  occupied  for 
two  and  a  half  months  in  the  reorganisation  of  the  army.  On  the  day  after 
his  arrival,  he  issued  a  significant  proclamation  which  appealed  to  the  worst 
appetites  of  the  soldiers,  but  which  was  in  accordance  with  the  agreement 
he  had  made  with  the  Directory. 

"  Soldiers !  you  are  naked,  ill-fed.  The  Government  owes  you  much,  but 
cannot  pay  you.  Your  patience,  and  the  courage  you  have  exhibited,  do 
you  credit,  but   gain    you    no  advantage,  get  you  no  glory.     I   will  conduct 

*  Despatch,  i8th  June,  1793,  in  Jung,  iii.  315. 


THE    ITALIAN    CAMPAIGN 


127 


you  into  the  most  fertile  plains  in  the  world,  where  you  will  find  large  cities  and 
rich  provinces.  There  you  will  acquire  honour,  glory,  riches.  Soldiers  of  the 
Army  of  Italy,  will  you  lack  the  requisite  courage?" 

If  ever  there  was  an  incentive  to  plunder,  this  was  one.  It  was  frank.  The 
hypocritical  assurance  that  the  invasion  was  one  for  the  sake  of  giving  liberty 
to  the  slaves  of  despotism,  was  reserved  to  be  addressed  to  the  Italians. 

The  character  given  to  this  war  in  Italy  was  different  altogether  from  that  of 
those  in  which  the  Republic  had  been  hitherto  engaged.  The  motive  force  was 
changed.  The  one  dominating  idea  which  had  given  to  the  Revolution  its 
moral  consistency,  and  had 
endowed  it  with  titanic,  irre- 
sistible power,  had  been  a 
moral  one — it  had  been  that 
of  Nationality.  Throughout 
the  Middle  Ages,  France 
had  been  an  aggregation  of 
provinces,  loosely  compacted, 
ravaged  by  internecine  war, 
each  under  its  feudal  sover- 
eign, each  with  its  parlia- 
ment, and  its  several  rights 
and  usages.  For  three  hun- 
dred years  the  English  had 
been  masters  of  Aquitaine, 
which  had  lived  apart  from 
the  current  of  French  culture, 
and  without  participation  in 
the  national  life.  Other  pro- 
vinces had  been  in  fitful  union 
with  the  heart  of  the  realm. 
Although,  under  Louis  XIV., 
the      Crown      had      become 

supreme,  it  had  obtained  its  supremacy  by  crushing  the  provincial  activities  to 
death,  instead  of  uniting  them  into  one  organism.  The  condition  of  the 
provinces  under  the  Crown  had  become  one  of  suspended  vitality.  But  the 
Revolution  had  brought  all  France  into  one  body,  and  sent  streams  of  electrical 
vigour  through  every  portion. 

The  wars  conducted  by  the  Republic  had  been  in  pursuit  of  this  end.  Because 
in  Belgium  the  French  tongue  was  spoken,  and  because  to  Nice  and  Savoy 
there  were  no  natural  barriers,  therefore  the  Republic  had  insisted  on  their  incor- 
poration into  France.  If  it  had  invaded  Holland,  this  had  been  with  no  purpose 
of  permanent  occupation  and  annexation.  But  now  it  was  to  be  otherwise. 
Italy  was  to  be  entered,  as  a  rich  land  to  be  despoiled,  and  peace  was  to  be  pur- 
chased with  Austria  and  Sardinia  by  partitioning  up  its  soil,  and  giving  them 
portions  as  indemnifications  for  the  annexed  provinces  of  Belgium  and  Savoy. 


BONAPARTE. 
A  drawing  by  Hennequin,  engraved  by  Tassaert. 


128        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  arrival  of  the  young,  comparatively  inexperienced,  Corsican  General  in 
the  army,  to  take  command,  somewhat  disconcerted  the  older  and  approved 
Generals  of  Division,  Massena,  Augereau,  Laharpe,  and  Serrurier  ;  but  any  in- 
clination to  dispute  his  ability  and  authority  was  taken  from  them  at  once, 
when  they  saw  the  energy  and  the  skill  with  which  he  set  to  work  to  put  that 
army  on  a  war  footing ;  and,  after  the  first  battle,  they  became  his  enthusiastic 
followers.  The  political  situation  was  singularly  favourable.  Peace  had  been 
concluded  with  Spain  ;  consequently  the  Army  of  the  Pyrenees  was  at  liberty, 
and  from  it  that  on  the  frontier  of  Ital}^  could  be  reinforced.  Peace  had  also 
been  made  with  Prussia,  which  enabled  the  Army  of  the  Rhine  to  fall  with  all 
its  weight  on  South  Germany,  and  force  its  way  over  the  tableland  where 
springs  the  Danube,  into  Austria  itself  There  were,  in  fact,  two  armies 
stationed  on  the  German  frontier,  that  of  Jourdan  at  Diisseldorf,  and  that 
at  Strassburg  under  Moreau  ;  and  both  were  at  liberty  to  co-operate  with 
Napoleon,  by  distracting  the  attention  of  Austria,  and  diverting  her  troops 
from  the  plains  of  Lombardy  to  the  head  waters  of  the  Danube. 

In  Italy,  the  Austrians  and  the  Sardinians  were  not  acting  in  concert.  The 
Piedmontese  Government  was  jealous  of  the  Austrians,  because  Savoy  and 
Austria  were  rivals  for  supremacy  in  Lombardy. 

The  x^ustrian  forces  were  under  Beaulieu  ;  those  of  the  Sardinians  under 
Colli.  The  two  generals  were  aware  of  each  other's  incapacity,  but  not  of  their 
own.  Their  troops  were  extended  from  the  sea  to  the  northern  frontier  of 
Piedmont,  guarding  the  passes. 

On  the  27th  March,  Napoleon  was  with  his  army.  On  the  loth  April  he 
had  begun  operations.  On  the  12th  he  met  Beaulieu,  and  won  the  battle  of 
Montenotte ;  then,  in  a  series  of  engagements,  he  beat  the  Piedmontese  and 
Austrians — the  former,  on  the  13th,  at  Millesimo ;  the  latter,  on  the  15th,  at 
Diego.  In  five  days  he  had  rammed  his  army,  as  a  wedge,  between  them,  had 
■driven  the  Sardinians  back  for  the  protection  of  Turin,  and  the  Austrians  to 
guard  the  approaches  to  Milan. 

The  instructions  Bonaparte  had  received  required  him  to  neglect  the 
Piedmontese,  and  follow  the  retreating  Austrians,  so  as  not  to  allow  the  latter 
to  recover  from  the  first  staggering  blows  dealt  them  ;  but  for  personal  reasons 
he  deemed  it  advisable  to  disregard  these  instructions,  to  turn  at  once  on  the 
Piedmontese,  and  drive  them  back  under  the  walls  of  Turin.  On  the  21st 
April  he  defeated  Colli  at  Mondovi,  took  from  him  2,000  prisoners,  eight  cannon, 
and  eleven  standards. 

The  feeble  king,  in  a  paroxysm  of  alarm,  shut  his  ears  to  all  considerations 
of  honour  and  expediency,  and  hastened  to  arrange  terms  for  an  armistice 
with  the  conqueror,  who  was  expressly  forbidden  by  his  Government  to 
conclude  one. 

Napoleon  had  neither  heavy  cannon  nor  siege  train  for  the  reduction  of 
Turin,  or  any  of  the  fortresses  of  Piedmont ;  the  allied  armies  were  superior  in 
number  to  the  French.  "  The  King  of  Sardinia,"  said  Napoleon,  "  had  still  a 
great  number  of  fortresses  left ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  victories  which  had  been 


THE    ITALIAN    CAMPAIGN  129 

gained,  the  slightest  check,  one  caprice  of  fortune,  would  have  undone  every- 
thing." 

Bonaparte  then  assumed  that  air  of  bluster  and  menace,  which  afterwards 
so  often  served  him  in  good  stead.  He  threatened  to  deliver  over  the  capital 
to  pillage,  unless  an  armistice  were  at  once  concluded.  Three  fortresses  were 
surrendered  to  him,  and  an  open  passage  was  afforded  him  for  further  proceed- 
ings against  Austria.  On  the  27th  April,  this  base  surrender  was  effected  at 
Cherasco. 

Two  days  before  this  Napoleon  had  issued  one  of  those  stirring  proclama- 
tions to  the  army,  wherewith  he  was  so  often  to  rouse  them  to  prodigies  of 
valour. 

"  Soldiers  ! — In  fifteen  days  you  have  gained  six  victories,  captured  twenty- 
one  standards,  fifty-five  guns,  several  strong  places,  conquered  the  richest 
portion  of  Piedmont.  You  have  made  15,000  prisoners,  and  have  killed  or 
wounded  10,000  men.* 

"  Hitherto  you  have  fought  among  barren  rocks,  which  bear  witness  to 
your  courage,  but  which  are  useless  to  our  country.  To-day  you  equal  by  your 
services  the  armies  of  Holland  and  of  the  Rhine.  Devoid  of  everything,  you 
have  supplied  yourselves  with  all  requisites.  You  have  gained  battles  without 
cannon,  passed  rivers  without  bridges,  accomplished  forced  marches  without 
shoes,  bivouacked  without  brandy,  and  often  without  bread.  .  .  .  To-day  you 
are  amply  furnished  with  all  necessaries.  The  magazines  captured  from  the 
enemy  are  numerous,  the  siege  and  field-pieces  have  arrived.  ...  I  promise 
you  the  conquest  of  Italy,  but  on  one  condition.  You  must  swear  to  protect 
the  people  you  deliver,  and  repress  the  horrible  pillage  in  which  scoundrels 
have  indulged.  Without  that  you  will  not  be  liberators,  but  a  pestilence ;  and 
your  victories,  your  courage,  your  success,  and  the  blood  of  your  brothers  who 
have  perished,  will  be  lost,  as  well  as  honour  and  glory." 

That  he  had  exceeded  his  powers,  directly  contravened  the  express  orders 
of  the  Directory,  Bonaparte  was  well  aware ;  he  could  justify  his  action  to 
himself  and  his  army  by  the  obvious  advantages  he  had  gained. 

He  despatched  Junot  with  twenty-one  standards  captured  from  the  enemy, 
to  present  them  to  the  Directory.  He  wrote  to  his  brother  Joseph  to  hurry  to 
Paris,  and  allay  any  alarm  that  might  have  arisen  there  at  his  high-handed 
conduct. 

But  the  news  of  his  victories,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  they  had  been 
gained,  had  fired  the  combustible  French  imagination,  and  pleaded  for  him 
better  than  could  his  brother  Joseph.  The  fever  of  enthusiasm  which  had 
caught  the  army,  communicated  itself  to  the  people.  Every  morning  the 
Moniteur  published  tidings  of  some  victory,  or  Bonaparte's  estimate  of  the  enor- 
mous spoil  that  was  to  be  gathered  out  of  the  rich  plains  and  overflowing  trea- 
suries of  Italy.  Even  the  Directors,  men  of  no  note,  some  of  them  vulgar 
adventurers,  the  only  man  among  them  with  a  smack  of  respectability  being 
Carnot,  were  dazzled  with  the  successes  of  Bonaparte,  if  a  little  afraid  as  to 
whither  they  might  lead. 

No  reliance  can  be  placed  on  the  numbers  given  by  Bonaparte  in  his  proclamations,  bulletins,  or 
private  letters. 


I30        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Junot  was  followed  by  Murat,  drawing  along  the  roads  the  cannon  that  had 
been  captured.  The  Directory,  with  an  empty  treasury,  with  their  assignats 
treated  almost  as  waste  paper,  were  eager  to  dip  their  trembling  fingers  into 
the  precious  metal  that  promised  to  flow  in  from  Italy :  the  silver  Madonnas 
that  could  be  melted  up,  the  Municipal  plate,  the  gorgeous  work  of  Benvenuto 
Cellini,  that  could  be  turned  into  coin,  the  bursting  money-bags  of  the  Lombard 
bankers,  the  Ecclesiastical  and  Monastic  hoards  ! 

Napoleon  had  repressed  brigandage,  after  allowing  his  soldiers  to  slake  their 
first  thirst  for  pillage.  For  indiscriminate  plunder,  he  had  substituted  enforced 
contributions.  Mondovi  was  required  to  pay  a  million,  Piacenza,  Modena, 
Parma,  their  many  millions.  Rich  Genoa  was  to  be  put  into  the  oil-press. 
And  the  soldiery  were  to  be  shod  and  clothed,  as  well  as  paid,  out  of  the 
land  they  oppressed.  All  this  was  offered  to  France,  that  was  almost  without 
a  metal  currency. 

But  the  Directory  was  unwilling  to  allow  Napoleon  the  free  hand  he 
had  begun  to  use.  It  concluded,  indeed,  the  peace  with  Sardinia,  the  advantage 
of  which  was  obvious  to  the  dullest  intellect,  but  it  reiterated  its  orders  to  the 
General,  for  the  future  to  conclude  no  armistices,  but  to  leave  all  such  negotia- 
tions to  the  Commissioners. 

It  gave  orders  that  Kellermann,  who  was  in  command  of  the  Army  of  the 
Alps,  should  cross  into  the  plains  of  Lombardy,  and  make  Milan  his  head- 
quarters. Bonaparte  was  to  turn  aside,  secure  Leghorn,  and  subjugate  Modena, 
Parma,  Rome,  and  Naples.  In  other  words,  the  command  in  Italy  was  to 
be  divided  between  himself  and  Kellermann,  who  was  designed  by  the  sus- 
picious Directory  to  serve  as  a  clog  on  his  ambition ;  and  the  Civil  Commis- 
sioners were  enjoined  to  watch  the  proceedings  of  both,  and  to  conduct 
all  political  negotiations. 

Bonaparte  received  this  communication  at  Lodi,  just  as  he  had  carried  the 
bridge,  and  had  driven  the  Austrians  in  headlong  flight  out  of  the  Milanais  to 
take  refuge  behind  the  walls  of  Mantua.  This  was  on  the  loth  of  May.  He 
had  already  forced  the  Grand  Duke  of  Parma  to  capitulate,  and  pay  two 
millions  in  silver,  and  furnish  1600  artillery  horses,  besides  vast  supplies  of  corn 
and  provisions.  He  had  moved  with  as  great  celerity  against  the  Austrians,  as 
against  the  Austrians  and  Sardinians  combined.  This  second  act  in  the  drama 
had  lasted  fifteen  days.  He  had  marched  on  the  ist  May.  The  Po  was  passed 
at  Piacenza  on  the  7th ;  the  Adda  at  Lodi  on  the  loth,  on  the  15th  he  entered 
Milan. 

The  express  orders  of  the  Directory,  revealing  its  mistrust,  and  hampering 
his  freedom  of  action,  filled  Napoleon  with  anger,  which,  however,  he  did 
not  dare  to  exhibit.  He  wrote  from  Lodi  to  Carnot  on  the  day  before  his  entry 
into  Milan  : — 

"  On  the  reception  of  the  letter  from  the  Directory  your  intentions  were 
executed,  and  the  Milanais  is  ours.  I  shall  shortly  march  so  as  to  carry 
out  your  views  relative  to  Leghorn  and  Rome.     That  will  not  take  long. 

"  I  have  written  to  the  Directory  on  the  subject  of   dividing  the  army. 


THE    ITALIAN    CAMPAIGN 


131 


I  swear  that  I  have  had  only  the  interest  of  my  country  in  view.  Besides,  you  will 
always  find  me  straightforward.  If  people  seek  to  injure  me  in  your  opinion, 
my  answer  is  to  be  read  in  my  heart  and  conscience. 

"  Kellermann  may  be  able  to  command  an  army  as  well  as  myself,  but  I 
think  that  to  link  together  Kellermann  and  myself  in  Italy  would  be  to 
sacrifice  everything.  I  cannot  willingly  serve  with  a  man  who  considers  him- 
self the  first  general  in  Europe. 

"  I  hold  that  one  bad  general  is  worth  more  than  two  good  ones.  War  is 
like  government,  a  thing  of  tact.  I  do  not  choose  to  be  trammelled.  I  have 
begun  with  some  glory,  I  desire  to  continue  worthy  of  you." 


The  Directors  gave  way. 

Meanwhile  the  Armies  of  the  Sambre 
and  the  Meuse  as  well  as  that  of  the 
Rhine  were  doing  nothing.     The  in- 
action   of  Jourdan    and    of  Moreau 
was  commented   on   in    Paris,  and 
contrasted     with     the     energy     of 
Bonaparte.      The   public   was   all 
with  the  latter.     To  the  urgency 
of  his  representations.  Napoleon 
added  the  argument  of  a  bribe. 
He  forwarded   a  list  of  pictures, 
vases,  and  manuscripts,  which  he 
had  selected  to  be  sent  to   Paris 
from    the    towns    he    had    entered 
or  laid  under  contribution.    He  sent 
this  notice  to  the  Directory :  "  1  have 
forwarded  to  Tortona  at  least  2,000,000 
francs    in    jewellery   and    silver    ingots. 
Then  we   shall    levy  20,000,000   francs 
upon  the  country,  which  is  one  of  the 
richest  in  the  world." 

The  Government  found  itself  greatly 
embarrassed.       It    was    forced    to    give 

way  in  the  matter  of  the  division  of  the  army,  or  risk  Napoleon  throwing  up 
his  command,  or  appealing  to  public  opinion  against  it.  And  the  Directors 
knew  that  their  tenure  was  insecure.  Moreover,  events  moved  with  such 
rapidity  as  to  take  away  their  breath.  % 

Madame  Junot,  in  a  few  words,  describes  the  situation  : — 

"  The  Army  of  Italy  surprised  us  every  day  by  the  prodigies  communicated 
in  its  bulletins.  The  Directory,  which  disliked  General  Bonaparte,  would  fain 
have  thrown  a  veil  over  the  glories  of  the  young  hero,  but  the  country  which  he 
had  saved  from  an  Austrian  invasion,  the  soldiers  whom  he  led  to  victory,  had 
thousands  of  voices  to  proclaim  it,  and  the  only  resource  left  to  the  ridiculous 
government,  wherewith  we  had  been  silly  enough  to  saddle  ourselves,  was  to 
abuse  him  whom  it  would  gladly  have  thrown  down  after  it  had  exalted  him." 


BONAPARTE. 
From  an  engraving  by  MarcelU  del  Giobiliti. 


132        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  Republican  Government  was  feeling  what  was  felt  at  Carthage,  and  by 
the  Roman  Senate,  when  they  had  at  the  head  of  their  armies  men  not  utterly 
commonplace,  and  when  they  dreaded  every  victory  gained  over  the  national 
enemy  as  a  blow  levelled  against  themselves. 

The  Republican  party  in  Northern  Italy  had  been  excited  to  enthusiasm  by 
the  prospect  of  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity,  promised  them  by  the  French  : 
but  when  the  invasion  resulted  in  grinding  exaction  ;  when  the  country  saw 
itself  pillaged  of  its  art-treasures,  its  churches  robbed  of  their  shrines,  every 
family  made  to  surrender  its  little  savings,  the  peasantry  forced  to  give  up  their 
horses,  oxen,  wagons,  corn,  then  they  were  roused  to  exasperation,  and  out- 
breaks of  violence  took  place.  This  was  the  case  at  Pavia,  where  the 
oppression  had  been  most  tyrannous,  and  it  had  resulted  in  the  murder  of 
some  Frenchmen.  Napoleon  resolved  on  inflicting  so  signal  a  chastisement  as 
would  paralyse  disaffection.  He  ordered  that  the  magistrates  should  be  shot, 
the  city  given  over  to  pillage,  and  the  unhappy  peasants  be  hunted  down  over 
the  plain  and  killed  like  vermin. 

Having  quelled  this  rising.  Napoleon  next  violated  the  Venetian  territory, 
and  occupied  Verona  and  Brescia. 

The  remnant  of  the  Austrian  army  was  in  Mantua,  and  Beaulieu  had  cut 
the  sluices  and  flooded  the  low  land  about  it.  The  line  of  the  Adige  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  French. 

A  siege  of  Mantua  was  not  to  be  thought  of  at  that  season,  when  the  plain 
bred  malaria.  He  left  the  enclosed  Austrians  to  the  ravages  of  low  fever,  and 
turned  his  attention  to  the  partial  execution  of  the  task  imposed  on  him  by  the 
Directory.  Austria  was  rapidly  collecting  reinforcements  for  the  relief  of 
Mantua,  and  Napoleon  prepared  to  meet  these  levies.  He  could  not  venture 
on  an  invasion  of  Tyrol  till  this  fastness  had  fallen. 

During  the  pause  that  ensued  he  entered  into  negotiation  with  the  States  in 
Italy  to  the  south.  Already,  on  the  5th  June,  he  had  concluded  a  treaty  with 
Naples,  whereby  the  Neapolitan  cavalry,  which  had  fought  under  the  command 
of  Beaulieu,  was  handed  over  to  him.  The  fleet  was  detached  from  that  of 
England,  and  Naples  undertook  to  maintain  neutrality.  The  States  that 
intervened  were  now  left  at  his  mercy.  He  at  once  despatched  his  adjutant 
(Murat)  to  Genoa,  to  order  the  dismissal  of  the  Austrian  ambassador.  To  the 
Directory  he  wrote  :^- 

"  If  your  intention  is  to  wring  5,000,000  or  6,000,000  francs  from  Venice,  I 
have  arranged  for  a  rupture  in  a  way  which  will  facilitate  matters. 

"From  the  conversation  I  have  had  with  the  envoy  of  the  Pope,  it  appears 
to  me  that  he  has  had  orders  to  offer  us  contributions.  Would  you  like  me, 
then,  to  accept  from  the  Pope,  in  exchange  for  an  armistice,  25,000,000  francs 
in  money,  5,000,000  francs  in  merchandise,  300  pictures  and  statues,  and  manu- 
scripts in  proportion  ?  " 

Whilst  thus  writing,  he  spoke  freely  to  Prince  Belmonte  Pignatelli,  and 
asked  him  if  he  thought  "  he  was  fighting  for  those  scamps  of  lawyers,"  as  he 
designated  the  Directory. 


THE    ITALIAN   CAMPAIGN 


^33 


He  made  a  hasty  descent  on  Leghorn,  secured  it,  then  met  the  Grand  Duke 
of  Tuscany  at  Florence,  and  brought  him  to  submission. 
On  the  2 1st  June,  Napoleon  wrote  to  the  Directory  :— 

"  Italy  is  to-day  entirely  French.  With  an  army  of  moderate  dimensions, 
we  have  to  face  all  emergencies — to  hold  the  German  armies  in  check,  to 
besiege  forts,  to  protect  our  rear,  to  overcome  Genoa,  Venice,  Florence,  Rome, 
and  Naples  ;  we  must  be  in  force  everywhere.  Military,  political,  and  financial 
unity  is  therefore  necessary.  Here,  one  must  burn  and  shoot  in  order  to 
establish  terror,  and  there  one  must  pretend  not  to  see  because  the  time  has 
not  arrived  for  action." 


HO.NAPAKiE    IN    ITALY, 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 

An  agent  was  appointed  to  sweep  together  whatever  was  worth  collecting.  ^ 
He  was  to  follow  the  French  army,  gathering  and  transmitting  to  France 
objects  of  art.  Catalogues  of  the  collections  in  towns  about  to  be  occupied 
were  demanded.  The  eyes  of  the  conquerors  looked  covetously  even  on  the 
woods  of  the  Romagna  and  of  Naples.  And  all  this  pillage  went  on  under 
the  pretence  of  emancipation  of  the  people  from  tyranny. 

"  A  strange  period,"  says  Lanfrey,  "  in  which  such  was  the  confusion  of 
ideas,  that  rapacity  spoke  the  language  of  patriotism,  and  patriotism  that  of 
rapacity,  and  the  two  got  so  .confused,  that  it  would  be  hard  to  say  which 
sentiment  prevailed." 

Liberty  had  become  a  cant  term,  and  liberal  expressions  were  used  in 
speech  with  no  fixed   and    appropriate   signification    applied    to   them.     The 


134        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

original  ideas  associated  with  them  had  become  upset  in  the  progress  of  the 
Revolution.  They  were  employed  by  men  of  all  opinions,  as  cover  to  the  most 
sordid  and  selfish  motives,  and  to  gloss  the  basest  actions. 

No  sooner  was  the  treaty  with  the  Pope  concluded,  than  Napoleon 
hastened  back  to  the  Mincio.  It  was  his  great  hope  to  obtain  the  surrender 
of  Mantua  before  the  arrival  of  the  new  Austrian  armies.  But  the  place  was 
too  strong,  and  his  attempts  to  storm  it  failed. 

On  the  29th  July,  General  Wiirmser,  at  the  head  of  50,000  men,  descended 
from  the  mountains.  There  were  three  passes  into  Italy,  that  from  Trent 
to  Bassano,  through  the  valley  of  the  Sugana ;  that  down  the  Adige  to 
Verona  ;  and  that  from  Arco  and  Riva  along  the  north-westerly  shore  of  the 
Lago  di  Garda  to  Salo,  and  thence  to  Brescia. 

The  Austrian  general  divided  his  forces  into  three  columns.  He  ordered 
Quasdanovich,  with  twenty  thousand  men,  to  skirt  the  lake  to  Salo,  whilst  he 
himself  descended  the  Adige  in  two  columns,  one  on  each  bank  of  that  river- 
Considering  that  the  relief  of  Mantua  was  urgent,  Wiirmser  resolved  on  press- 
ing on  thither,  whilst  his  left  column  occupied  Verona. 

In  the  first  conflicts  the  Imperialists  were  successful.  They  drove  in  the 
troops  opposed  to  them,,  broke  the  lines  of  communication  of  the  French, 
and  the  Republican  forces  were  menaced  with  being  surrounded  and  cut  to 
pieces.  The  danger  was  extreme,  and  none  realised  it  so  completely  as  did 
Napoleon. 

For  the  first  time  he  summoned  a  council  of  war.  All  the  officers,  save 
Augereau,  were  for  immediate  retreat  behind  the  line  of  the  Po.  Brescia  was 
already  in  the  hands  of  Quasdanovich.  Massena  had  been  driven  from  the 
plateau  of  Rivoli,  where  he  had  stood  across  Wiirmser's  road,  and  that  general 
was  already  on  his  way  to  Mantua. 

Now  occurred  one  of  those  rare  instances  of  indecision  and  paralysis  of  the 
brain  and  will  in  Napoleon  that  were,  perhaps,  the  consequence  of  over- 
tension. 

The  night  drew  on,  and  he  had  come  to  no  resolution.  At  two  o'clock  in 
the  morning  he  summoned  a  second  council  of  war,  and  declared  that  he  had 
decided  to  retreat. 

But  now  his  generals  again  disagreed  with  him.  The  precious  moments 
for  a  backward  movement  were  gone.  Retreat  was  almost  cut  off;  and  they 
ventured  to  rebuke  him  for  his  lack  of  resolution.  Then  Augereau,  in  his 
bold,  boastful  fashion,  stepped  up  to  Bonaparte,  took  him  by  the  button-hole, 
and  said,  "  I  seek  only  your  advantage.  Here  we  must  fight,  and  I  guarantee 
a  victory.  Moreover,"  and  he  set  his  cap  firmly  on  his  head,  "  if  it  goes  against 
us,  that  can  only  be  when  Augereau  is  dead." 

When  Bonaparte  saw  that  all  were  against  him,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  matter.     I  go  ! "  and  flung  out  of  the  room. 

"  But  who  will  command  us  ? "  called  Augereau  after  him.  "  You," 
answered  Napoleon,  and  disappeared.  Among  the  Generals  of  Division 
Kilmaine  was  the  eldest,  and  as   he  professed    his   readiness   to   act   under 


THE    ITALIAN    CAMPAIGN 


135 


Augereau,  and  the  others  agreed  to  do  the  same,  Augereau  took  the  supreme 
command.* 

But  the  die  was  cast,  and  Napoleon  recovered  his  self-possession ;  and  as 
to  fight  was  necessary,  his  resolution  was  speedily  formed. 

He  sent  orders  to  Serrurier,  in  command  before  Mantua,  to  spike  the  guns, 
throw  the  stores  into  the  lagoon,  and,  with  the  utmost  precipitation,  rejoin  the 
main  army.  This  was  performed  with  the  rapidity  enjoined ;  and  when 
Wlirmser  reached  Mantua,  to  his  surprise,  he  found  no  forces  before  the 
fortifications  to  dispute  the  ground  with  him. 

Bonaparte's  army  was  by  no  means  able  to  match  itself  with  the  entire 
Imperialist  host,  but  was  sufficient  to  engage  each  column  separately,  and  this 
Napoleon  now  did.  He  flung  himself  against  Quasdanovich  (ist  August, 
1796),  arrested  his  advance,  retook  Brescia,  and  threw  him  back  into  the 
mountains.  On  hearing  of  this,  Wiirmser  left  Milan,  to  come  to  the  assistance 
of  Quasdanovich,  and  in  order  to  effect  a  junction  with  him,  unduly  extended 
his  line.  The  French  Commander-in-Chief  saw  the  error  at  once,  and  fell  on 
him  with  all  his  weight,  and  broke  the  centre. 

The  battles  of  Lonato,  Castiglione,  and  Medola  decided  the  fate  of  this 
great  Austrian  army.  Wiirmser  retreated  to  Roveredo,  having  lost  nearly 
20,000  men  and  sixty  pieces  of  cannon,  and,  what  was  more  serious,  with  an 
army  dispirited  and  demoralised. 

For  three  weeks  Wiirmser  was  engaged  in  reorganising  and  recruiting  his 
forces ;  and  when  he  was  again  at  the  head  of  50,000  men,  he  resolved  on  once 
more  taking  the  initiative. 

Wiirmser  was  but  a  second-class  general ;  but  he  was  further  hampered  by 
being  required  to  carry  out  a  scheme  of  campaign  devised  for  him  at  a  distance 
by  the  Aulic  Council.  Napoleon  had  broken  with  such  restraints,  and  this 
alone  gave  him  an  advantage. 

The  result  of  the  September  campaign  was  as  disastrous  as  the  first. 
Wiirmser  was  defeated  at  Bassano  by  Massena,  and  was  obliged  to  throw 
himself  into  Mantua. 

In  November  another  Imperialist  General,  Alvinzi,  a  man  of  third-rate 
abilities,  and  equally  hampered  by  a  cut-and-dried  scheme  prepared  in  Vienna, 
was  despatched  to  the  relief  of  Wiirmser,  at  the  head  of  a  third  army.  After 
some  successes  on  the  plateau  of  Rivoli  and  at  Caldiero  (Nov.  nth),  he  pushed 
forward,  forcing  the  French  to  retreat,  and  as,  in  retiring,  they  faced  the  army 
of  Alvinzi,  they  exposed  themselves  in  rear  to  sorties  from  Mantua. 

The  weather  was  rainy,  the  soldiers  were  discouraged.  Even  Bonaparte 
lost  heart. 

But  though  in  danger,  his  resources  were  not  at  an  end.  On  the  night 
of  November  14th,  he  hastily  and  in  secret  left  his  position  in  face  of  the 
enemy,  descended  I  the  Adige  to  Rusco,  crossed  the  river,  and,  on  a  narrow 
causeway,  traversed  the  marshes,  and  turned  the  flank  of  the  enemy,  whose 

*  Appendix  to  the  Mhnoires  de  Massma,  1850,  We  strongly  suspect  that  this  scene  has  been 
overcoloured. 


136        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


numbers  availed  nothing.  At  the  bridge  of  Areola,  over  the  little  stream  of 
the  Alpone,  the  most  desperate  engagement  took  place ;  it  was  the  focus  of 
the  battle.  Bonaparte  knew  that  if  he  lost,  his  army  would  be  annihilated, 
as  Davidovich  was  hastening  up  with  reinforcements.  His  future  and  the  fate 
of  Italy  depended  on  success.  The  bridge  was  swept  by  a  storm  of  balls. 
Snatching  the  tricolor  flag,  he  rushed  forward,  preceded  only  by  his  young 
aide-de-camp,  Muiron,  who  covered  his  body,  and  fell  at  his  feet.  Electrified 
by  his  example,  the  grenadiers,  who  had  fallen  back,  returned  to  the  charge, 

and  the  enemy  was  repulsed. 
During  this  bloody  battle  of 
seventy-two  hours,  Napoleon 
exposed  himself  to  death  like 
a  common  soldier.  This  feat 
of  arms,  which  arrested  the 
imagination  of  the  world, 
created  the  utmost  admiration 
in  France,  and  pictures  repre- 
senting the  Victor  at  Areola, 
flag  in  hand,  leading  the 
grenadiers  over  the  bridge^ 
were  multiplied. 

On  the  19th  November, 
Bonaparte  wrote  to  the  Di- 
rectory : — 

"  The  battle  of  Areola  has 
decided  the  fate  of  Italy. 
Mantua  cannot  hold  out  a 
fortnight.  Send  me  the  pro- 
mised reinforcements,  and  I 
promise  in  six  weeks  to  have 
constrained    the   Emperor   to 

Profile  sketch  by  Gros.  SUe  for  peaCC." 

His  expectations  were  not  fulfilled  as  speedily  as  he  calculated.  Mantua  did 
not  surrender  till  the  19th  January,  1787,  and  peace  was  not  concluded  with  the 
Emperor  till  four  months  later. 

Meanwhile,  the  efforts  of  France  elsewhere  had  not  been  successful.  The 
attempt  on  Ireland  had  broken  down.  Jourdan  and  Moreau  in  Germany  had 
been  badly  beaten  by  the  Archduke  Charles.  Only  in  Italy  were  the  arms 
of  the  Republic  wreathed  with  laurels,  and  Napoleon  had  gained  his 
great  successes  by  his  political  craft  as  much  as  by  his  military  abilities. 
He  had  detached  Naples  from  England  ;  without  striking  a  blow,  Corsica 
had  been  recovered.  The  English  fleet,  deprived  of  the  assistance  of  the 
Neapolitan  fleet,  as  of  that  of  Spain,  and  of  all  base  of  operations,  had 
been  unable  to  maintain  the  mastery  of  the  Mediterranean.  Piedmont  had 
been  detached  from  the  Austrian  alliance,  and  from  Italy  a  stream  of  silver 


*. 

■    m      ^1 

iK 

^^B  -  '  •  '1b^^^^'  '  -^^lAi-iw^fid^l 

^^B 

tai„ 

'      -y^H 

^^pv%     ^•-- 

m 

k. 

m 

^V^^'-^T     /;^-' 

-^ 

.    ^ 

■  ^ 

^1 

=^r 

1 

Ai 

^ 

M 

1 

t'A,  M , , 

1 

BONAPARTE    ON   THE   BRIDGE   OF   ARCOLA. 
After  the  picture  by  Gros. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 
^LlFO^!!gSs< 


THE    ITALIAN    CAMPAIGN  139 

had  been  diverted  into  the  French  Treasury,  languishing  for  the  precious 
metal. 

But  the  efforts  of  the  armies  of  the  East  had  not  been  without  advantage. 
They  had  detained  in  Germany  the  flower  of  the  Austrian  army,  so  that  the 
troops  sent  into  Italy  had  consisted  mainly  of  raw  recruits,  and  of  Tyrolese, 
who,  like  the  Highlanders  that  followed  Prince  Charles  Edward,  lost  their 
energy  and  courage  when  they  were  out  of  their  native  mountains.  Moreover, 
the  abortive  attempt  at  an  invasion  of  England  had  recalled  the  Mediterranean 
fleet  for  the  defence  of  our  own  shores. 

Thus,  in  spite  of  failures  in  these  several  undertakings,  great  advantages  were 
gained  through  them,  but  these  were  overlooked  by  the  French  people,  who 
were  rendered  blind  with  exultation  over  the  triumphs  of  Napoleon  in  the 
plains  of  Northern  Italy,  and  to  him  alone  all  the  credit  of  success  was 
attributed. 

Great  and  conspicuous  as  were  the  abilities  of  Bonaparte,  yet  his  achieve- 
ments were  in  a  measure  only  due  to  his  abilities  ;  they  were  occasioned 
in  large  part  by  the  wretchedness  of  the  material  he  set  himself  to  overthrow. 
Kleber  well  said  in  his  notes  :  "  Turenne  acquired  glory  because  he  was  brought 
face  to  face  with  Montecuculli,  the  greatest  general  of  his  century.  Bonaparte 
gained  his  celebrity  by  fighting  all  the  most  imbecile  generals  the  House 
of  Austria  could  scrape  together  and  launch  against  him."* 

*  Les  Garnets  du  General  Kleber,  unpublished,  in  the  Archives  of  the  Ministry  of  War.  This  pas- 
sage is  quoted  from  them  in  the  Memoires  d'une  Contemporaine^  new  ed.,  1895,  p.  162. 


?y^-'.!<«PI.'!W'M!'"".'P'P' 


CROQUIS    BY    DAVID. 


XX 


THE    CISPADANE    REPUBLIC 


(October,  1796— February,  1797) 


T  N  the  preceding  chapter  the  rapid  sequence  of  events  in  Northern  Italy  has 
-*-  been  traced.  In  this  chapter  we  will  look  at  some  of  the  methods  adopted 
by  Napoleon  towards  the  States  of  Italy,  the  Directory,  and  his  army. 

In  his  dealings  with  the  Directory,  and  with  the  Italian  people,  he  employed 
a  duplicity  which  is  only  excusable  on  the  plea  that  he  had  a  native  love  for 
crooked  ways,  and  a  Southern  insensibility  to  the  merits  of  truth. 

To  cajole,  to  delude  by  false  assurances,  and  to  cast  promises  to  the  winds 
when  the  observance  was  inconvenient,  to  sow  mistrust  among  allies,  such  were 
methods  which,  to  an  Italian  mind,  constitute  statecraft.  The  principles  of 
chivalry,  honour,  the  sacredness  of  a  promise,  were  beyond  the  range  of 
Bonaparte's  moral  conception.  They  were  regarded  by  him  as  extravagances 
of  sentiment,  tolerable  in  novels  but  impossible  in  real  life. 

Napoleon's  character  is  difficult  of  comprehension  to  the  English,  because 
so  antipathetic.  The  latter  has  not  been  trained  or  distorted,  in  the  schools  of 
Macchiavelli  and  Liguori,  from  the  broad  course  of  truth  and  honour.  But 
Bonaparte's  character  was  true  to  itself  always,  though  possibly  to  that  alone ; 
and  though  the  scene  changes,  and  the  stage  widens,  he  plays  the  same  part  in 
the  same  way,  with  the  same  instruments,  whether  in  Corsica,  France,  or 
Europe ;  whether  with  Paoli,  Salicetti,  Talleyrand,  or  Kosciusko. 

It  may  be  asked  whether  he  had  any  definite  object  before  his  eye  during 
the  Italian  campaign.     He  had  abandoned  the  thought  of  playing  a  leading 

140 


THE    CISPADANE    REPUBLIC  141 

part  in  Corsica,  for  that  field  was  too  contracted  to  serve  his  ambition.     Had 
he  any  other  in  view  ? 

His  self-exaltation  to  the  army  at  the  expense  of  the  Directory,  his  resolute 
rejection  of  the  interference  of  the  latter,  his  creation  of  a  republic  in  North 
Italy,  which  should  look  to  him  and  not  to  Paris,  all  seem  to  point  to  an 
intention  of  conquering  France  through  Italy.  He  had  not  read  Caesar  in 
vain.  Meantime,  he  laboured  at  forming  the  Army  of  Italy  into  a  serviceable 
and  devoted  tool,  to  be  to  him  what  his  legions  had  been  to  Caesar.  And  to 
this  end  he  devoted  his  attention.  It  was  characteristic  of  Napoleon,  through- 
out his  career,  that  he  was  a  man  of  two  or  more  plans,  and  he  employed  the 
tempered  weapon  in  his  hand  to  carry  out  whatever  plan  seemed  to  him  at  the 
moment  to  be  feasible.  Consequently,  the  East  still  gleamed  before  him,  he 
:saw  also  that  Italy  was  possible  of  consolidation  into  one  Empire,  and  that  in 
Erance  at  any  moment  he  could  play  the  part  of  Cromwell. 

In  Italy,  the  predominant  power  to  be  broken  was  Austria,  that  occupied 
Milan  and  Mantua,  that  had  an  Austrian  prince  in  Tuscany,  and  was  closely 
allied  with  Naples.  In  the  division  of  the  Spanish  monarchy,  Naples  had 
fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  Austrian  House,  but  had  been  handed  over  in  1735  to  a 
.Spanish  master,  the  first  of  the  line  of  Neapolitan  Bourbons.  But  the  Queen, 
a  woman  of  energy  and  resolute  character,  was  a  daughter  of  Maria  Theresa, 
and,  exercising  a  predominant  control  over  the  weak  mind  of  her  husband, 
threw  all  the  force  of  the  Two  Sicilies  on  the  side  opposed  to  France. 

Consequently,  it  was  essential  to  Napoleon,  whatever  his  ulterior  objects 
-might  be,  to  break  the  Imperial  power. 

Not  less  important  was  it  for  him  to  emancipate  himself  from  the  control  of 
the  Directory.  After  his  first  success  he  had  concluded  an  armistice  with  the 
King  of  Sardinia,  without  having  been  empowered  so  to  do,  and,  indeed,  in 
direct  contravention  of  his  instructions.  In  the  sequel  he  went  further.  He 
was  aware  that  every  success  gained  attached  his  army  more  closely  to  him, 
increased  his  popularity  and  power  in  France,  and ,  weakened  the  Directors 
correspondingly. 

The  Government  in  France  was  not  desirous  of  protracting  the  war.  All  it 
sought  was,  in  the  first  place,  to  obtain  a  slice  of  North  Italy,  which  it  might 
give  to  Austria  as  compensation  for  Belgium,  and  in  the  second,  to  put  an  end 
to  the  Papal  rule,  as  Rome  was  the  centre  of  every  plot  formed  by  the 
emigrants,  and  had  its  agents  everywhere  in  the  priests. 

To  limit  Napoleon's  independence  of  action,  and  assert  its  paramount 
authority,  the  Directory  sent  a  Commissioner,  Clarke,  to  Bonaparte,  with 
alternative  conditions  in  his  pocket,  that  were  to  be  presented  to  the  Emperor, 
with  whom  he  alone  was  authorised  to  treat  for  peace. 

The  arrival  of  Clarke  caused  Napoleon  great  annoyance,  and  he  took  no 
pains  to  disguise  it.  Clarke  was  hampered  and  set  aside,  and  found  himself 
powerless  to  exercise  his  functions,  reduced  to  a  cipher ;  and  Bonaparte 
insisted  on  acting  independently. 

The  French  Government  was  impatient  for  peace,  and  Clarke  proposed 


142        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

to  conclude  an  armistice  of  three  months,  in  order  to  facilitate  negotiations 
through  Paris ;  but  this  did  not  meet  the  views  of  the  General,  and  he  opposed 
it.  Then  Clarke  produced  his  instructions  from  the  Government,  which  were 
precise  on  the  point.  Napoleon  rudely  rejected  them.  "  If  you  come  here 
to  obey  me,"  said  he,  "  then  I  am  willing  to  receive  you,  but  if  not,  pack  home 
to  those  who  sent  you,  and  the  sooner  the  better."  The  Commissioner  had 
no  force  at  his  back  to  enable  him  to  compel  obedience,  and  remained  silent. 
Indeed,  so  completely  was  he  overawed  by  the  commanding  genius  and 
resolute  manner  of  Napoleon,  that  he  himself  wrote  to  the  Directory :  "  It 
is  indispensable  that  the  General-in-Chief  should  conduct  all  the  diplomatic 
operations  in  Italy." 

The  Directors  were  forced  to  give  way  so  far  as  to  order  that  Clarke  was 
to  enter  into  no  negotiations,  without  first  submitting  the  conditions  to  the 
General,  but  even  this  concession  was  unpalatable,  and  was  disregarded  by 
the  imperious  head  of  the  army.  Without  authority  from  the  Directory,  he 
deposed  the  Duke  of  Modena,  and  having  annexed  Bologna,  Ferrara,  and 
Reggio  to  the  duchy,  he  gave  them  a  constitution,  and  organised  them  into 
a  Cispadane  Republic. 

His  dealings  with  the  Pope  were  independent  of  the  Directory,  and  signi- 
ficant. The  five  rulers  in  Paris  were  fanatics,  and  determined  on  making 
short  work  with  the  head  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  breaking  up 
the  nest  of  anti-republican  propagandism  under  the  shadow  of  S.  Peter's. 
But  Bonaparte  was  aware  that  a  reaction  in  favour  of  Christianity  and 
Catholicism  was  setting  in,  in  France,  and  he  saw  that  the  Spiritual  Power 
was  a  fact  not  to  be  ignored,  and  which  might  be  useful  if  conciliated. 

It  was  in  vain  that,  in  France,  Sundays  and  Holidays  had  been  abolished, 
and  the  week  altered.  The  new-fashioned  religion  of  Humanity  was  derided. 
The  persecutions  to  which  the  Catholic  Church  had  been  subjected  had  in- 
tensified faith,  which  previously  had  been  vague,  and  had  united  its  members 
in  a  common  enthusiasm.  Even  the  most  convinced  adherents  of  the  Republic 
were  constrained  to  admit  that  the  religious  revolution  had  largely  failed,  and 
that  the  wisest  course  to  be  adopted  would  be  to  make  some  arrangement 
with  the  Papacy  for  the  re-establishment  of  religion.  This  was  urged  on 
political  grounds,  because  it  was  pointed  out  that  France,  in  its  struggle  with 
England,  could  reckon  on  no  sympathy,  no  help,  from  Ireland,  so  long  as  she 
persecuted  and  despoiled  Rome. 

Napoleon  had  no  personal  religious  convictions,  but  he  respected  power 
wherever  lodged,  and  he  was  alive  to  the  advantage  to  himself  if  he  were  able 
to  pose  as  a  friend  of  religion  and  a  protector  of  the  Pope.  This  would  not 
only  conciliate  to  him  all  the  priesthood  in  Italy,  but  attach  to  him  as  well 
a  large  and  growing  party  in  France. 

Accordingly  he  assumed  a  peculiar  attitude  towards  the  Holy  See.  He 
professed  the  most  profound  respect  for  the  head  of  Christendom,  and  his 
personal  desire  for  the  preservation  of  the  Catholic  Church,  which  he  declared 
was  likely  to  reconquer  the  world  when  purified  of  some  of  its  corruptions. 


1 


THE    CISPADANE    REPUBLIC  143 

But  he  was  an  instrument  of  an  unbelieving,  antagonistic  Republic.  He  was 
commissioned  to  plunder  and  bleed.  If  he  did  this,  it  was  because  he  was 
powerless  to  evade  the  obligations  laid  on  him  by  his  superiors.  But  he 
solemnly  assured  the  Pope  and  the  clergy  that  they  might  rely  on  him  to 
execute  his  commission  in  the  most  conciliatory  manner  possible. 

To  the  Directory  he  wrote  :  "  The  influence  of  Rome  is  incalculable  ;  it  was 
a  great  mistake  to  quarrel  with  that  power." 

He  lost  no  occasion  to  speak  flattering  words  of  the  piety  and  spotless  lives 
of  the  prelates  of  Italy,  and  to  contrast  them  with  the  conduct  of  the  abbes  of 
France  before  the  Revolution. 

He  distinguished  sharply  between  the  spiritual  position  of  the  Pope  and  his 
position  as  a  temporal  prince.  For  the  Pope,  as  head  of  the  Church,  he 
exhibited  deference,  but  to  his  temporal  claims  he  paid  no  regard. 

On  the  1st  February,  1797,  Bonaparte  issued  a  proclamation  as  justification 
of  his  march  into  the  States  of  the  Church.  He  met  with  no  serious  opposition. 
He  forbore  from  entering  Rome.  He  somewhat  ostentatiously  spared  the 
Pope  that  humiliation,  and  thereby  earned  his  gratitude.  He  signed  a  Conven- 
tion with  the  Holy  See  at  Tolentino,  on  the  19th  of  February,  without  regard 
to  the  Commissioners  or  the  Directory.  The  Pope  was  to  pay  in  all  30,000,000 
liras,  and  the  so-called  Legations  of  the  Church,  Bologna,  Ferrara,  and  Reggio, 
were  made  over  to  France,  and  the  citadel  of  Ancona  was  to  be  occupied  by 
Republican  troops.* 

This  peace,  signed  by  Napoleon,  was  by  no  means  relished  by  the  Directors, 
who  had  desired  the  complete  annihilation  of  the  Papacy.  But  they  were  be- 
coming daily  more  aware  of  the  mistake  they  had  made  in  giving  Bonaparte 
the  facilities  for  making  himself  a  Caesar.  They  complained  of  his  absorbing 
their  powers,  but  complained  in  vain. 

But  he  did  more  than  absorb  power ;  he  took  to  himself,  also,  the  spoils  of 
the  lands  overrun.  At  first,  he  sent  money  to  Paris,  but  the  glittering,  coveted 
coin  soon  ceased  to  flow,  and  was  replaced  by  cases  of  statuary,  pictures,  and 
by  promises. 

The  Directors  complained  about  this  also.  Napoleon  was  ready  with  his 
explanation  and  excuse.  The  Commissioners  they  appointed  had  absorbed  the 
specie. 

In  February,  1797,  Napoleon  seized  on  Loretto,  but  the  greater  part  of  the 
treasure  had  been  already  removed  ;  nevertheless,  he  obtained  seven  million 
francs,  which  he  did  not  remit  to  the  Directory,  but  sent  them  instead  the  black 
doll  there  worshipped.  The  dearth  of  money  in  Paris  was  not  relieved.  The 
Directory  was  distracted.  All  attempts  to  give  the  assignats  the  value  of  metal 
were  unavailing.     In  the  treasury,  the  ebb  was  so  low  that  neither  officials  nor 

*  In  his  letter  of  loth  February,  1797,  this  is  what  he  asserts  was  obtained.  Five  days  after 
he  wrote  to  state  it  was  but  i,ocx),ocx).  From  the  Pope  was  extracted  15,000,000  fr.,  to  be  paid  within 
one  month  ;  30,000,000  more  were  to  be  paid  within  three  months  ;  horses  and  cattle  were  to  be 
furnished  to  an  immense  amount ;  and  the  Vatican  was  to  be  again  plundered  of  statues,  paintings,  and 
rare  manuscripts.  As  Napoleon  wrote  to  the  Directory,  "We  have  now  all  that  is  beautiful  in  Italy, 
except  a  few  objects  that  remain  at  Turin  and  Naples" — 19th  February,  1797. 


144        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

troops  could  be  paid.  This  financial  famine  had  been  the  means  of  placing 
Bonaparte  in  position  as  Commander-in-Chief  He  had  undertaken  to  make 
Italy  supply  and  pay  his  troops.  He  was  ordered  to  send  to  Paris  forthwith 
everything  that  could  be  turned  to  money,  to  sell  Church  estates,  and  all  the 
domains  confiscated,  and  forward  the  sums  thus  obtained.  He  was  to  impose 
-contributions  on  Lombardy,  Piedmont,  Parma,  Modena,  Genoa,  Leghorn, 
Venice,  and  the  States  of  the  Church,  and  pour  these  vast  sums  into  the  empty 
treasury.  But,  instead  of  doing  so,  he  emptied  all  into  the  army  chest,  and 
only  the  overflow  reached  Paris.  On  the  17th  October,  1796,  he  did  indeed 
send  20,000,000  francs  to  the  Directory,  and  furnished  Kellermann,  in  command 
of  the  Army  of  the  Alps,  with  700,000  fr.  ;  and  2,000,000  he  despatched  to 
the  Army  of  the' Rhine.  He  had  sent  a  million  to  be  expended  on  the  fleet  at 
Toulon,  and  was  highly  incensed  when  the  Directors  diverted  the  sum  into 
another  channel.  He  had  no  intention  of  enriching  "  ces  gredins  " — those 
scrubs,  as  he  contemptuously  called  the  heads  of  the  Government  in  France, 
^nd  he  devoted  the  money  extorted  from  the  countries  overrun,  for  the  enrich- 
ment of  his  own  soldiers,  and  for  the  equipment  of  a  fleet  at  Toulon,  and 
,a  flotilla  at  Ancona. 

To  the  repeated  complaints  of  the  Directory,  not  satisfied  with  marbles  and 
canvases,  he  had  but  one  answer  to  give — that  their  Agents  and  Commissioners 
.absorbed  the  spoils. 

On  the  1 2th  October,  1796,  Bonaparte  wrote  of  his  Army  Contractors  and 
Administrators : — 

"  Since  I  arrived  at  Milan  I  have  waged  war  with  the  swindlers.  I  have 
had  several  tried  and  punished  ;  others  I  denounce.  In  making  this  declaration 
of  war,  a  thousand  voices  will  be  raised  against  me.  If  two  months  ago  I 
wished  to  be  Duke  of  Milan,  to-day  I  desire  to  be  King  of  Italy.  As  long  as 
my  strength  lasts,  and  I  enjoy  your  confidence,  I  shall  show  the  swindlers  no 
more  pity  than  the  Austrians.  The  Company  Flachat  is  a  nest  of  robbers 
without  money  and  without  morality.  .  .  .  You,  no  doubt,  calculated  that  your 
Administrators  would  rob,  but  that  they  would  exhibit  some  sense  of  shame  in 
so  doing.  They  plunder  in  a  manner  so  flagrant  and  impudent,  that  if  I  had  a 
month  of  spare  time,  I  would  shoot  every  one.  I  never  cease  having  them 
arrested  and  tried  by  court-martial ;  it  is  a  regular  fair  here,  where  everything 
is  for  sale.  .  .  .  Thevenin  is  a  robber ;  he  is  insolent  in  his  luxury.  Have  him 
arrested,  and  keep  him  six  months  in  prison;  he  is  able  to  pay  a  war  tax  of 
500,000  francs." 

On  the  6th  January,  1797,  he  wrote  to  the  Directory:  "Everyone  is  venal. 
The  army  consumes  five  times  as  much  as  is  necessary,  because  the  store- 
keepers give  false  receipts,  and  share  with  the  Commissioners  of  War.  The 
principal  Italian  actrices  are  kept  by  the  officials  of  the  French  army ;  luxury, 
depravity,  malversation  are  at  their  height." 

There  were  other  excuses — the  contributions  were  not  paid  in,  the  confis- 
x:ated  lands  could  not  be  sold — the  banks  did  not  forward  the  money  paid 
into  them.  Even  the  Leghorn  contribution  of  40,000,000  did  not  reach 
the  itching  fingers  of  Barras  and  Company.     Napoleon  charged  the  bankers 


THE    CISPADANE    REPUBLIC  145 

Flachat  with  having  embezzled  it.  They  were  tried  by  court-martial  and 
acquitted.  The  firm  could  show  that  they  had  not  received  the  money 
Napoleon  asserted  had  been  paid.  Afterwards,  under  the  Empire,  it  was 
found  advisable  to  destroy  the  report  of  this  trial,  with  the  evidence  thereat 
produced.* 

Napoleon's  next  step  was  to  set  aside  the  two  Commissioners  and  the 
Paymaster-General,  Denniee,  an  eminently  honest  man,  and  to  entrust  the 
management  of  the  funds,  wrung  from  the  overrun  territories,  to  an  arch- 
scoundrel,  whom  he  had  himself  denounced  as  a  "  rogue  " — the  Swiss,  Haller  ; 
a  man  who,  he  said,  "  had  only  come  into  the  country  to  steal." 

Nevertheless  he  made  this  rogue  his  confidant,  and  Haller  had  to 
give  account  of  what  he  received  and  what  he  disbursed  to  none  save 
Napoleon. 

In  the  autumn  of  1796,  the  Commissioners  did  venture  to  investigate  the 
accounts,  when  they  discovered  that  a  sum  of  five  million  francs  was  un- 
accounted for.f  After  that,  no  more  accounts  were  transmitted  to  Paris. 
When  the  thirty  million  francs  were  paid  by  the  Pope,  in  the  spring  of  1797, 
Napoleon  kept  the  entire  sum  for  his  army  chest. 

Bonaparte  was  resolved  that  the  spoil  of  the  land  should  enrich  his  soldiers. 
He  knew  that  money  sent  to  Paris  would  be  pocketed  by  the  Directors,  and  his 
soldiers  had  earned  their  reward  with  their  blood.  Moreover,  he  was  creating 
Military  Corps  of  Poles,  who  flocked  to  him  across  the  Alps,  and  was  raising 
and  organising  bodies  of  Italian  Volunteers.  Notwithstanding  losses  in  battle, 
Napoleon's  army  swelled.  On  the  8th  May,  1796,  there  were  at  headquarters 
at  Piacenza,  46,378  men.  In  October  the  number  had  risen  to  78,000  men. 
On  the  20th  April,  1797,  at  Treviso,  he  had  79,364  men  ;  and  including  those  in 
garrisons  in  Italy,  as  many  as  141,220  men. 

The  Army  of  Italy  was  personally  devoted  to  him.  The  soldiers  serving 
under  him  contrasted  their  condition  with  that  of  their  brothers-in-arms  under 
Kellermann,  who  were  inactive  and  unpaid  in  the  Alps,  and  those  under 
Moreau  and  Jourdan,  who  had  been  defeated  and  thrown  back.  Their  young 
leader  led  them  invariably  to  victory.  "  Italy  shall  be  your  prey,"  had  been  his 
promise,  and  he  had  kept  his  word.  The  Directory  had  first  let  slip  the  power, 
and  now  the  profit  was  gone  as  well ;  both  were  in  the  hands  of  the  new 
Caesar.  '^ 

Whether,  at  this  time.  Napoleon  had  in  view  the  assumption  of  a  Dictator- 
ship in  Italy,  the  acquisition  of  an  imperial  crown  as  Caesar,  is  very  doubtful. 
He  did  little  to  conciliate  the  Italians.  Not  only  were  they  unmercifully 
fleeced,  but  they  were  deluded  with  hypocritical  professions ;  and  it  suffices  to 
place  side  by  side  his  proclamations  to  the  people  and  his  letters  to  the 
Directory,  written  at  the  same  time,  to  show  how  recklessly  he  used  assurances 

*  In  November,  1796,  a  month  after  his  charge  made  agains-t  the  bankers  Flachat,  he  sent  a 
peremptory  order  to  Faypoult,  the  French  Minister  at  Genoa,  to  pay  in  all  money  received  from  contribu- 
tions and  sale  of  lands,  to  his  army  chest,  and  not  to  expedite  it  to  Paris ;  so  also,  all  the  Leghorn  con- 
tribution was  to  be  deUvered  to  him,  and  not  sent  to  the  Directory. 

t  Letter  of  N.  B.  to  the  Directory,  of  12  October,  1796. 
L 


146        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

which  he  had  no  intention  of  fulfilling,  and  which  events  must  show  the  Italians 
were  used  merely  to  deceive  them. 

The  Italian  patriot,  Ugo  Foscolo,  had  believed  in  the  protestations  of 
Napoleon,  had  refused  to  open  his  eyes  to  fact? ;  it  was  not  till  after 
reading  the  Treaty  of  Campo-Formio  that  his  faith  in  Bonaparte,  as  the 
liberator  of  his  country,  failed,  and  then,  throwing  it  down,  he  cried,  "  Finis 
Italiae ! " 


XXI 
LEOBEN    AND    CAMPO-FORMIO 

(January— October  i8,  1797) 

A  FOURTH  Imperial  army  had  been  formed,  and  poured  through  the 
ravines  of  Tyrol,  to  burst  on  the  resolute  and  compact  body  of  men 
commanded  by  Bonaparte  in  the  plain,  and  to  overwhelm  it. 

Again  it  met  with  defeat,  and  was  driven  back  into  the  Alps,  in  the  battle 
of  the  Plateau  of  Rivoli.  It  had  been  composed  in  part  of  volunteers  raised 
in  Vienna,  who  marched  under  a  banner  embroidered  by  the  hands  of  the 
Empress  herself,  and  of  troops  raised  in  the  recently  acquired  Polish  provinces. 
The  army  numbered  fifty  thousand.  The  battle  raged  from  the  19th  to  the 
27th  Nivose,  and  though  contested  with  great  valour,  was  lost  through  the 
incapacity  of  Alvinzi,  who  allowed  himself  on  this  occasion  to  be  as  completely 
out-generaled  as  at  Areola.  The  shattered  remnants  of  his  host  retreated 
to  the  mountains,  and  the  fortress  of  Mantua  surrendered  to  the  French  on 
the  14th  Pluviose  (2nd  February,  1797). 

The  war  in  Italy  seemed  terminated.  The  march  of  two  columns  towards 
the  gorge  of  the  Apennines  had  forced  the  Court  of  Rome  to  conclude  peace 
with  France.  But  when  Bonaparte  flattered  himself  that  he  could  give  repose 
to  his  soldiers,  he  learned  that  the  Aulic  Council,  believing  that  it  had  no  other 
general  capable  of  resisting  him  except  the  Archduke  Charles,  had  transferred 
him  from  the  army  defending  the  Rhine  and  Danube  to  that  which  had  been 
mismanaged  by  Alvinzi.  This  necessitated  immediate  preparation  to  renew 
the  struggle.  Some  divisions  of  the  Army  of  the  Rhine,  under  Bernadotte, 
were  sent  to  strengthen  that  under  Napoleon. 

The  Archduke  Charles  found  himself  in  command  of  a  demoralised  and 
dispirited  remnant,  very  inferior  in  number  to  the  army  opposed  to  him.  He 
demanded  reinforcements,  but  at  least  a  couple  of  weeks  would  elapse  before 
they  arrived.     At  Paris  the  Directory  was  impatient  for  peace. 

The  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Sambre  and  Meuse  had  been  taken  from 
Jourdan  and  committed  to  Hoche,  a  very  able  general,  and  entirely  relied  on 
by  the  Democrats.  Moreau,  at  the  head  of  the  Army  on  the  Upper  Rhine,  was 
ordered,  along  with  Hoche,  to  advance  towards  Vienna,  so  as  to  co-operate 
with  Napoleon  in  Italy.  The  latter  was  uneasy.  Unless  he  took  precipitate 
action,  and  brought  the  campaign  to  an  end  before  Hoche  and  Moreau  had 

147 


148        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

effected  great  things,  he  would  share  laurels  with  them.  There  was  something 
worse  to  be  feared.  He  dreaded  lest  the  supreme  command  should  be  trans- 
ferred from  him — whom  the  Directory  regarded  with  mistrust — to  Hoche,  on 
whom  it  could  rely.  He  thereupon  resolved  to  risk  all  in  a  forward  movement 
before  the  armies  of  the  Rhine  had  begun  the  campaign.  If  he  succeeded — 
then  the  peace  he  would  conclude  would  be  due  to  himself  alone.  If,  however, 
he  succeeded  not  only  in  driving  back  the  Archduke — of  that  he  was  certain — 
but  of  pushing  on  to  the  gates  of  Vienna,  then  he  would  place  himself  in  a 
most  precarious  position.  Drawn  into  the  hereditary  States — there  a  popula- 
tion, enthusiastically  devoted  to  the  Emperor,  would  be  sure  to  rise  en  masse, 
and  attack  the  Republican  army  on  their  flanks  and  rear ;  he  would  also  have 
behind  him  the  ravines  of  Tyrol,  Carniola,  and  Styria,  covered  with  sharp- 
shooters, and  still  further  in  the  rear,  the  Venetian  Republic — which,  though 
neutral,  had  been  harassed  and  pillaged  past  endurance — and  the  other  Italian 
States  only  waiting  for  a  reverse  to  rise  against  the  common  foe. 

If  he  had  considered  the  advantage  of  France,  then  certainly  he  would  have 
awaited  the  advance  of  Hoche  and  Moreau,  and  not  have  run  the  tremendous 
risk  of  an  advance  on  Vienna  unsupported.  A  peace  concluded  at  the  gates  of 
Vienna,  with  the  three  French  armies  united — victorious  along  the  lines  of 
their  march — would  have  been  at  the  dictation  of  France.  But  this  did  not 
suit  the  interests  of  Napoleon ;  and  he  took  the  forward  step. 

After  defeating  the  Archduke,  in  the  month  of  March,  on  the  Tagliamento, 
he  advanced;  thereupon  the  Archduke  retreated  slowly,  and  in  admirable  order, 
towards  Vienna,  in  the  hopes  of  receiving  reinforcements  from  the  capital  and 
from  Hungary.  General  Landen  was  driving  back  the  French  detachments  on 
the  Upper  Adige,  and  was  almost  on  the  verge  of  the  plains  of  Lombardy. 
The  Archduke  was  full  of  hope.  Bonaparte,  on  the  other  hand,  was  anxious ; 
but  disguising  this  feeling,  and  suddenly  pretending  to  deplore  the  horrors  of 
war,  and  to  be  desirous,  merely  for  humanity's  sake,  for  a  peace,  he  wrote  a 
flattering  "  philosophical "  letter,  as  he  called  it,  to  the  Archduke,  calling  him 
the  Saviour  of  Germany,  and  representing  the  English — "  the  shopkeepers  on 
the  Thames" — as  those  alone  concerned  in  the  continuation  of  the  war.  (31st 
March.) 

The  Archduke  referred  him  for  an  answer  to  Vienna.  Bonaparte  was  now 
at  Judenburg,  in  Upper  Styria,  about  eight  days'  march  from  Vienna. 

It  was  the  weakness  of  this  plan  of  invasion  by  the  valleys  of  the  Danube 
and  Po  which,  later,  lost  Italy  to  the  Directory,  and  it  would  have  ruined 
Napoleon  had  he  not  now  made  peace.  The  Alps  acted  as  a  barrier  between 
the  two  invading  armies,  and  served  as  a  covered  way  for  the  advance  of  a 
defending  force  between  them,  to  threaten  their  flank  or  to  cut  their  communi- 
cations. This  was  also  the  reason  of  Kellermann's  apparent  inactivity  in 
Napoleon's  rear.  Moreover,  Napoleon's  line  of  communication  between  Nice 
and  Genoa  was,  in  places,  within  range  of  hostile  cruisers.  This  made  him 
solicitous  about  the  fleet. 

Knowing  how  important  for  his  safety  was  the  forward  march  of  the  army 


o  a 

>     a 


<     a 


i 


LEOBEN   AND    CAMPO-FORMIO  151 

of  the  Sambre  and  Meuse,  and  of  that  of  the  Rhine,  he  at  once  sent  money  to 
them,  as  he  did  also  to  that  of  the  Alps,  and  a  large  sum  to  Toulon  for  the 
fleet. 

At  the  same  time,  in  order  to  protect  his  rear,  his  agents  were  engaged  in 
stirring  up  a  revolution  in  the  State  of  Venice,  and  his  officers  in  charge  of 
detachments  quartered  there  were  enjoined  not  to  quell  the  disorders,  nor  to 
suffer  the  Venetian  Government  to  do  so.  By  this  means  he  hoped  not  only  to 
paralyse  that  State,  but  also  to  furnish  an  excuse  for  the  great  act  of  treachery 
he  was  meditating  with  regard  to  it. 

On  the  7th  April  Bonaparte  consented  to  an  armistice  with  the  Austrians, 
and  announced  this  fact  to  the  Directory.  "Our  other  armies,"  he  said,  "have 
not  yet  passed  the  Rhine,  and  we  are  within  twenty  leagues  of  Vienna ;  the 
Army  of  Italy  is,  therefore,  exposed  alone  to  the  efforts  of  one  of  the  first 
powers  of  Europe.  The  Venetians  are  arousing  the  peasants,  bringing  their 
priests  into  the  field,  and  setting  in  motion  the  whole  mechanism  of  their  anti- 
quated Government."  The  fact  really  was,  that  the  demagogues,  stirred  up  by 
his  agents,  were  clamouring  against  the  oligarchy  of  the  few  families  of  the 
Golden  Book.  At  the  same  time  great  exasperation  was  felt  at  the  out- 
rages committed  by  the  French  soldiers  quartered  in  a  neutral  State,  and 
the  peasants  in  places  rose  in  retaliation.  On  the  9th  April  Bonaparte  wrote 
to  the  Doge  of  Venice,  threatening  war  unless  the  armed  peasants  were 
disbanded. 

"  Do  you  think,"  he  asked,  "  that  because  I  am  in  the  heart  of  Germany 
I  am  powerless  to  cause  the  first  nation  in  the  universe  to  be  respected  ?  " 

Junot  was  the  bearer  of  this  missive  to  the  Doge.  In  some  instances  French 
soldiers  had  been  killed,  but,  as  Bonaparte  himself  wrote  on  a  former  occasion 
to  the  Directory,  "  it  was  necessary  to  exaggerate  the  assassinations  committed 
against  our  troops."  (July  20th,  1796.)  To  General  Kilmaine  he  sent  orders  to 
fall  unexpectedly  on  some  village  where  the  insurgents  were  not  in  force,  and  to 
burn  it,  and  to  arrest  all  the  Venetian  senators  and  nobles. 

In  Vienna  great  was  the  consternation  at  the  advance  of  Napoleon,  and 
a  strong  party  urged  that  peace  should  be  concluded.  The  armistice  was 
accordingly  taken  advantage  of  for  coming  to  terms,  and  a  preliminary  agree- 
ment was  signed  at  Leoben  on  the  i8th  April.  By  a  secret  article,  it  was 
arranged  that  Austria  was  to  receive  the  neutral  state  of  Venice,  in  compensa- 
tion for  the  loss  of  Lombardy.  Immediately  the  news  of  this  important  treaty 
was  despatched  by  Bonaparte,  not  only  to  the  Directory,  but  also  to  Generals 
Hoche  and  Moreau.  The  former  had  crossed  the  Rhine  at  Neuwied,  driven 
back  the  Austrians  at  Heddersdorf,  and  was  on  the  point  of  cutting  off  their 
retreat,  and  capturing  the  whole  army,  when  a  courier  brought  him  the  tidings 
of  the  signature  of  the  preliminaries,  and  arrested  him  in  the  midst  of  his 
successes. 

The  army  of  Moreau,  led  by  Dessaix,  had  also  crossed  the  Rhine  below 
Strassburg,  and  had  driven  the  Austrians  before  it  through  the  Black  Forest. 
It  also  was  obliged  to  withdraw,  without  accomplishing  more,  for  the  same 


152        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

reason.     By  this  means   Napoleon  had  reaped   the  glory,  but  it  was  at  the 
expense  of  France. 

Again  he  had  transgressed  his  authority.  Clarke  was  the  authorised 
Commissioner,  entrusted  with  the  arrangement  of  armistices  and  of  treaties. 
Bonaparte  had  left  him  behind  at  Milan. 

The  General  wrote  to  the  Directory  to  ask  confirmation  of  the  treaty, 
knowing  very  well  that  it  could  not  refuse. 

Napoleon  now  hastened  back  to  Italy  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  Venice,  so  as 
to  carry  out  the  secret  agreement  with  Austria.  The  excuse  was  afforded  by 
an  unfortunate  accident.  A  French  vessel,  against  harbour  rules,  had  moored 
near  the  gunpowder  magazine  of  Lido.  The  captain,  called  Tangier,  refused 
to  listen  to  the  remonstrances  of  the  commandant  of  the  port,  and  that  officer 
opened  fire.  Langier  and  a  few  men  were  killed.  This  gave  Napoleon  the 
excuse  he  desired.  He  called  on  the  Venetian  Government  to  dismiss  the 
British  Ambassador,  to  deliver  up  the  British  merchandise  in  the  magazines,  and 
to  pay  70,000,000  francs.  He  further  ordered  all  Venetian  ships  in  Leghorn 
and  Ancona  to  be  seized. 

The  Democrats  in  the  State  were  set  in  motion  by  the  agents  of  Napoleon. 
They  rose  in  insurrection  against  the  Doge  and  the  nobles,  set  up  the  tree  of 
liberty  in  the  Square  of  S.  Mark,  roused  the  people  to  rebellion  in  Bergamo, 
Brescia,  and  other  towns,  and  got  possession  of  the  castles.  Napoleon  en- 
couraged them  with  the  hopes  that  by  means  of  a  revolution  they  would  obtain 
a  free,  democratic  republican  Government,  composed  of  delegates  and  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people.  Then,  under  the  pretence  of  keeping  order,  he 
introduced  troops  into  Venice,  and  next,  in  plainer  words,  told  the  Doge  and 
the  Senate  that  the  people  must  have  a  new  Constitution,  and  demanded  their 
resignation.  Overawed,  they  obeyed.  Bonaparte  then  took  possession  of  the 
arsenal  and  docks,  with  all  their  stores,  and  all  ships  of  war ;  a  provisional 
Government  of  the  required  democratic  form  was  set  up,  and  the  Radicals 
danced  round  the  tree  of  liberty  in  their  red  caps,  singing  "  Ca  ira''  believing 
that  what  had  been  promised  them  was  given  in  good  faith,  and  without  the 
smallest  foreboding  that  they  and  their  country  had  already  been  signed  away 
to  the  Austrian  Emperor.  At  the  same  time,  Genoa  was  democratised  and 
affiliated.  The  Senate  of  the  Republic  had  endeavoured  to  remain  neutral,  but 
had  secretly  co-operated  with  the  French.  The  King  of  Piedmont  cast  covetous 
eyes  on  Genoa,  and  the  thought  to  indemnify  him  therewith,  as  Austria  was 
indemnified  with  Venice,  suggested  itself  to  the  mind  of  Napoleon. 

The  manner  in  which  the  old  Republic  of  Venice  had  been  treated  was  not 
allowed  to  pass  without  comment  from  the  nobler  spirits  in  France ;  but  the 
odium  it  provoked  injured  the  Republican  Directors,  while  the  advantages  that 
were  purchased  by  the  transaction  were  ascribed  to  Bonaparte. 

The  summer  was  spent  by  Napoleon  at  the  chateau  of  Montebello,  near 
Milan,  that  was  situated  sufficiently  high  to  be  healthy,  and  which  commanded 
a  beautiful  view  over  the  Lombard  plains.  There  he  maintained  considerable 
state ;  he  had  his  body-guard,  and  imposed  a  strict  etiquette  on  all  who  sur- 


LEOBEN   AND    CAMPO-FORMIO 


153 


rounded  him.  He  no  longer  received  his  aides-de-camp  at  his  table  ;  he  dined, 
as  it  were,  in  public,  after  the  manner  of  the  French  kings.  His  saloons  were 
constantly  filled  by  the  great  nobles  and  other  distinguished  men  of  Italy  who 
sought  an  introduction.  Josephine  was  there  as  Queen  in  his  little  Court,  his 
uncle  Fesch  had  arrived,  his  lovely  sister  Pauline,  and  his  brothers  Joseph  and 
Louis. 

Bourrienne,  who  came  to  him  at  Leoben,  says,  "  I  no  longer  addressed  him 
as  I  had  been  accustomed  to  do.  I  appreciated  too  well  his  personal  import- 
ance. His  position  placed  too  great  a  social  distance  between  him  and  me  not 
to  make  me  feel  the  necessity  of  fashioning  my  demeanour  accordingly." 


ALLEGORICAL   ENGRAVING   OF   THE   PERIOD. 
Representing  the  humiliation  of  Austria,  and  the  exaltation  of  Bonaparte. 


Miot  de  Melito*  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the  working  of  Napoleon's  mind  at 
the  time.  Napoleon  spoke  often  to  him  very  plainly.  "  What  I  have  accom- 
plished," said  he,  one  day,  "  up  to  the  present  is  nothing.  I  am  only  at 
the  commencement  of  my  career.  Do  you  think  that  1  have  triumphed 
in  Italy  for  the  honour  and  glory  of  the  lawyers  of  the  Directory,  for  Carnot 
and  for  Barras  ?  Do  you  think  that  this  is  done  in  order  to  found  a  Republic  ? 
What  an  idea  !  A  Republic  of  30,000,000  souls,  with  our  habits  and  our  vices  ! 
Where  would  be  the  possibility?  It  is  a  chimera  with  which  the  French 
are  enamoured,  but  which  will  pass  away,  like  many  another.  They  require 
glory,  and  their  vanity  must  be  satisfied  ;  they  have  no  conception  of  liberty. 
Look  at  the  army  !  The  victories  we  have  gained  have  restored  to  the 
French  soldier  his  true  character.  I  am  everything  to  him.  Let  the 
Directory  endeavour  to  deprive  me  of  my  command,  and    it  will   see  who 

*  Mimoires^  Paris,  1858. 


154        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

is  master.  The  nation  requires  a  chief  who  has  acquired  glory,  and  not 
theories  and  phrases.  Give  them  playthings,  and  they  will  be  content  to  be 
led  anywhere." 

The  delay  over  the  conclusion  of  the  peace,  of  which  only  the  preliminaries 
had  been  arranged  at  Leoben,  irritated  him.  Although  agreed  as  to  the  spolia- 
tion of  their  neighbours,  each  side  desired  to  gain  rather  more  than  the  other 
allowed.  Accordingly,  on  both  sides,  reinforcements  were  sent  to  the  armies, 
and  preparations  were  made  to  renew  the  contest  should  a  rupture  ensue. 

At  length  Napoleon,  impatient  to  have  the  matter  settled,  when  in  confer- 
ence with  the  Austrian  plenipotentiary,  flung  down  a  costly  porcelain  vase, 
and  dashed  it  into  pieces,  exclaiming,  "  I  will  break  your  monarchy,  like 
this  vase." 

The  treaty  of  Campo-Formio  was  signed  on  the  following  day  (i8th  October, 
1797)-  The  Directory,  on  the  29th  of  September,  had  forbidden  the  cession  of 
Venice  to  Austria ;  but  Napoleon  was  strong  enough  to  disregard  his  instruc- 
tions. 

Whatever  may  have  been  Bonaparte's  feelings  towards  the  Directory  when 
he  took  the  command  of  the  Army  of  Italy,  a  year  and  a  half  of  campaign  and 
of  victory  in  the  field,  of  success  in  political  combinations,  had  ended  in  his  en- 
tertaining for  the  Government  a  sense  of  profound  contempt,  which  he  made  no 
scruple  to  exhibit  by  his  independent  conduct,  and  which  he  expressed  to  his 
confidants.  He  believed  that  spies  were  employed  by  the  Directory  to  watch 
him,  and  report  on  his  proceedings.  He  was  convinced  that  General  Clarke  had 
secret  instructions  to  this  effect,  and  was  instructed  to  arrest  him  if  an  oppor- 
tunity offered  for  so  doing.  Whether  he  would  be  able  to  bell  the  cat,  had  not 
perhaps  entered  into  the  consideration  of  the  Directors. 

For  whom,  then,  for  what,  was  Bonaparte  fighting  ?  Not  for  France.  Public 
opinion,  though  dazzled  at  his  victories,  was  against  the  prosecution  of  the  war, 
and  the  acquisition  of  tutelage  over  Italy.  Not  for  the  five  "  gredins  "  tricked  up 
in  Francis  I.'s  costume — hat,  pantaloons,  and  lace,  seated  on  rush-bottomed 
chairs,  at  a  three-legged  table,  dictating  the  affairs  of  France.  Not  for  any 
principle.  He  had  ceased  to  believe  in  those  which  had  swept  France  like 
a  hurricane,  and,  in  proclaiming  "  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity,"  had  laid 
all  men  low,  and  rendered  the  country  bankrupt.  Not  for  the  Italian  people ; 
he  despised  them  as  unworthy  of  freedom  ;  he  professed  in  all  Italy  he  had  en- 
countered but  two  menr  He  fought,  negotiated,  concluded  peace,  extorted 
contributions  for  his  own  advancement,  to  serve  his  own  interests  ;  but  in 
which  direction  his  ambition  was  to  look,  that  was  not  as  yet  clear  to  himself. 

*  *'  Good  God,"  said  he,  "how  rare  men  are  !  There  are  eighteen  millions  in  Italy,  and  I  have  with 
difficulty  found  two,  Dandolo  and  Melzi."     Ibid.^  57. 

To  Talleyrand  he  wrote,  on  7th  October,  1797  :  "You  little  know  these  people  here.  They  do  not 
deserve  40,000  Frenchmen  being  killed  for  them.  You  imagine  that  liberty  can  make  an  enervated, 
superstitious,  pantaloon-like,  and  cowardly  nation  accomplish  great  things.  You  desire  me  to  do 
miracles.     I  do  not  know  how  to  work  them." 


XXII 
THE    I  8th    FRUCTIDOR 

(September  4,  1797) 

^TT^HAT  a  moment  would  arrive  when  the  legislative  and  the  executive 
-*■  powers  would  be  in  conflict  was  inevitable.  Sieyes  saw  that  when  the 
Constitution  of  III.  was  being  elaborated,  and  he  drew  back  from  participa- 
tion. The  body  of  Five  Hundred  had  been  composed  of  two-thirds  of  the 
Convention.  In  the  spring  of  1797,  one-third  of  the  Representatives  of  the 
people  was  required  to  withdraw,  and  one  of  the  Directors  had  also  to 
relinquish  office. 

France,  in  the  meantime,  had  become  impatient  at  having  regicides  at 
the  head  of  its  Government — men,  moreover,  without  principle.  There  was 
no  guarantee  as  to  the  future.  The  country  was  exhausted  by  wars — glorious 
indeed,  but  bringing  to  France  no  particular  advantage  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
involving  her  in  responsibilities  that  might  be  irksome,  and  provoking  further 
military  operations. 

The  violent  measures  adopted  by  the  Convention,  in  order  to  obtain  for 
themselves  places  in  the  new  Councils,  had  not  been  forgotten  or  forgiven,  and 
there  was  no  prospect  of  those  who  stepped  out  being  re-elected.  The  Direc- 
tory trembled  at  the  prospect  opening  before  them.  They  had  to  contend 
against  the  Anarchists,  the  Constitutionalists,  and  the  Royalists.  The  first 
had  already  broken  out  in  the  conspiracy  of  Baboeuf  on  the  12th  Fructidor 
(the  night  of  the  loth-iith  September),  and  had  been  crushed  by  the  soldiery; 
the  Constitutionals  assembled  in  the  club  of  the  Rue  Clichy,  and  murmured 
against  the  despotic  measures  adopted  by  the  Directory.  Behind  them, 
sometimes  co-operating  with  them,  was  the  body  of  those  inclined  for  a  restora- 
tion of  Royalty.  On  the  9th  April,  1797,  the  fears  of  the  Directory  were 
stimulated  by  the  result  of  the  elections.  In  Paris,  in  Lyons,  and  in  Marseilles, 
the  people  had  chosen  as  their  representatives  men  opposed  to  the  Directory, 
and  ready  to  favour  a  return  to  Monarchy. 

General  Pichegru  v/as  elected  President  of  the  Legislative  Council,  by 
387  voices  against  57,  and  Pichegru  was  known  to  be  opposed  to  Democratic 
despotism  ;  what  was  not  known  was,  that  he  was  in  correspondence  with  the 
Bourbons.  His  recognised  moderation  had  been  the  cause  of  his  having 
hitherto  been  refused  a  command  of  troops. 

155 


156        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

In  the  Directory  a  different  condition  of  affairs  existed.  Letourneur  had 
stepped  out,  and  his  place  had  been  filled  by  Barthelemy,  a  mild  old  man,  who 
had  been  ambassador  at  Basle.  There  was  already  a  schism  in  the  executive. 
Carnot  disliked  and  objected,  to  the  unconstitutional  proceedings  of  Barras 
and  his  tail — Rewbell  and  Lareveillere.  The  gulf  between  them  widened 
daily,  as  the  majority  interfered  with  the  liberty  of  the  Press,  sharpened  the 
laws  against  emigrants,  and  tampered  with  the  freedom  of  the  elections. 

The  Moderates,  who  preponderated  in  the  Legislative  Council  of  Five 
Hundred,  and  who  unquestionably  represented  the  feeling  of  the  people  of 
France,  were  Republicans,  desirous  of  preserving  all  those  advantages  gained 
by  the  Revolution,  at  the  same  time  resolved  that  the  country  should  be 
governed  by  constitutional  methods,  and  not  be  plunged  into  wars  at  the  will 
of  an  ambitious  general,  be  involved  in  alliances  and  responsibilities  without 
being  consulted,  and  be  ruled  by  irresponsible  Dictators.  These  latter  were 
seriously  alarmed  for  themselves.  In  the  event  of  a  restoration  of  the 
Monarchy,  their  heads  were  certain  to  fall,  as  they  were  all  regicides ;  neither 
had  they  any  desire  to  be  called  to  account  by  the  representatives  of  the 
people  for  their  conduct,  which  was  but  too  culpable  not  to  be  impeached. 

The  strain  was  much  like  that  on  the  13th  Vendemiaire  ;  and  it  was  obvious 
to  Barras  and  his  two  followers  that  to  hold  their  position  they  must  have 
recourse  to  the  same  method  as  before — call  the  military  arm  to  their  aid. 
The  decision  must  be  made  by  the  sword. 

The  Royalists  and  the  Constitutionals  trusted  in  Pichegru  and  in  Moreau. 
The  former  was  in  secret  correspendence  with  the  exiled  royalists ;  the  latter 
was  a  man  of  moderation,  and  not  likely  to  forgive  the  guillotining  of  his 
father. 

On  the  other  hand,  Hoche  was  a  man  of  fiery  radicalism,  and  of  un- 
questionable ability.  Barras  knew  that  he  could  rely  on  Napoleon,  but  he 
was  also  shrewd  enough  to  perceive  the  personal  ambition  of  the  successful 
commander  of  the  Army  of  Italy.  There  was  nothing  to  be  feared  from 
Hoche  ;  and  he  summoned  him  to  his  aid.  A  curious  passage  in  the  Histoire 
Secrete  du  Directoire,  attributed  to  Fabre  de  I'Aude,  shows  how  that  already 
a  true  estimate  was  being  formed  of  the  character  of  Napoleon  by  men  of 
observation  and  intelligence.  The  author  was  one  day  about  this  time  in 
conversation  with  the  poet,  Joseph  Chenier,  when  he  expressed  the  wish  that 
France  might  see  Bonaparte,  Pichegru,  Carnot,  and  two  others  as  Directors ; 
then,  said  he,  the  Republic  would  be  looked  after  properly.  Chenier  laughed 
and  replied,  "The  first  two  would  begin  by  strangling  the  others,  and  then 
would  proceed  to  eat  each  other  up." 

"■  What  is  your  opinion  of  the  young  Corsican  ?  "  asked  Fabre.  "  He  will 
stroke  the  Republic,"  answered  the  poet,  "till  she  shuts  her  eyes,  and  then 
he  will  bind  her  fast  in  chains.  I  have  observed  him  closely.  He  has  the 
look,  the  movement,  the  way  of  speech  of  a  tyrant ;  the  Timoleon  who  would 
free  us  of  him  would  deserve  well  of  his  country."  "  And  what  do  you  think 
of  Pichegru  ?  "  asked  Fabre  next.     "  He,"  answered  Chenier,  "  has  not  got  the 


THE    i8th    FRUCTIDOR  157 

resolution  to  usurp  the  mastery ;  he  will  work  for  the  old  gentlemen  who  are 
over  us.  Bonaparte  will  exploit  the  country  to  his  own  advantage ;  Pichegru 
sell  it  to  the  highest  bidder." 

That  Pichegru  was  scheming  the  restoration  of  the  Monarchy,  no  one 
knew  better  than  Bonaparte,  who  had  intercepted  a  correspondence  between 
him  and  the  Royalist  agent,  the  Count  D'Entraigues  ;  but,  characteristically, 
he  did  not  reveal  this  to  the  Directory,  but  allowed  matters  to  take  their 
.course,  hoping  that  the  conflict  in  Paris  might  thereby  reach  a  head,  and  he 
would  be  called  in  to  decide  between  the  parties. 

On  the  23rd  June,  the  discontent  among  the  Constitutional  Party  found 
open  expression,  when  the  delegate  Dumolard  stood  up,  and  in  the  Council  of 
Five  Hundred  demanded  an  explanation  of  the  conduct  of  the  Directory  in  the 
matter  of  Italy,  and  the  negotiations  with  Austria. 

Dumolard  was  a  man  of  moderation,  and  he  had  more  than  once  praised 
■Bonaparte.  Even  now,  he  said  that  he  did  not  ascend  the  tribune  to  blame  the 
General,  but  to  interpellate  the  Directors. 

Dumolard  was  followed  by  Doulcet,  to  whom  Bonaparte  owed  his  promo- 
lion  ;  and  he,  whilst  approving  the  principles  advocated  by  Dumolard,  cast 
blame  on  the  Directors,  and  not  on  Napoleon.  When  the  report  of  this  inter- 
pellation reached  the  General  in  Italy,  it  threw  him  into  a  paroxysm  of  fury, 
real  or  simulated,  although  he  had  absolutely  nothing  to  complain  of.  But  he 
would  not  lose  the  chance  offered  of  giving  a  push  to  the  rotten  Directory.  It 
was  his  object  at  this  moment  to  precipitate  its  fall,  whilst  his  victories  were 
still  fresh.     With  his  own  hand  he  wrote  : — 

"This  motion,  printed  by  order  of  the  Assembly,  it  is  evident,  is  issued 
against  me.  I  was  entitled,  after  having  five  times  concluded  peace,  and  given 
the  death-blow  to  the  coalition,  if  not  to  civic  triumphs,  at  least  to  live  tran- 
quilly under  the  protection  of  the  first  magistrates  of  the  Republic.  At  present 
I  find  myself  ill-treated,  persecuted,  and  disparaged  by  every  shameful  means 
which  their  policy  brings  to  the  aid  of  persecution.  I  would  have  been  in- 
different to  everything  except  the  species  of  opprobrium  with  which  the  first 
magistrates  of  the  Republic  endeavour  to  overwhelm  me.  After  having 
■deserved  well  of  my  country  by  my  very  last  act,  I  am  not  bound  to  endure  to 
hear  myself  accused  in  a  manner  as  absurd  as  it  is  atrocious.  I  had  not 
expected  that  a  manifesto,  signed  by  emigrants  paid  by  England,  should  obtain 
more  credit  with  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred  than  the  evidence  of  eighty 
thousand  men,  than  mine.  ...  If  only  base  men,  who  are  dead  to  the  feeling 
of  patriotism  and  national  glory,  had  spoken  of  me  thus,  I  would  not  have  com- 
plained. I  would  have  disregarded  it ;  but  I  have  a  right  to  complain  of  the 
degradation  to  which  the  first  magistrates  of  the  Republic  reduce  those  who 
have  aggrandised  the  French  name  and  carried  it  to  so  high  a  pitch  of  glory. 
Citizens,  Directors,  I  wish  to  live  in  tranquillity,  if  the  poignards  of  Clichy  will 
allow  me  to  live.  You  have  employed  me  in  negotiations.  I  am  not  very  fit 
to  conduct  them." 

This  precious  letter  deserves  close  attention.  It  is  in  marked  contrast  with 
the  extreme  temperance  with  which  Dumolard  had  spoken,  and  the  forbearance 
with  which  he  had  treated  Bonaparte.    All  that  the  Deputy  had  demanded  was 


158        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

the  constitutional  right  of  the  Assembly  to  exercise  its  legitimate  control  over 
the  foreign  policy  of  the  Government.  He  objected,  as  he  had  a  right  to  object, 
to  wars  being  engaged  in,  and  treaties  being  concluded  by  irresponsible 
Generals,  without  the  country  being  allowed  to  judge  whether  the  wars  were 
just,  and  whether  the  terms  agreed  to,  on  the  conclusion  of  a  peace,  were 
advantageous  and  honourable.  The  weight  of  the  condemnation  fell  on  the 
Directory.  Yet  Napoleon  launched  forth  in  angry  rebuke  of  the  Directors,  as 
though  they  were  responsible  for  the  interpellation.  He  resented  all  comment 
on  his  actions  and  criticism  of  his  conduct,  in  a  national,  representative 
Assembly.  In  his  wrath  he  requested  his  recall,  but  tacked  to  his  request  a 
significant  threat. 

The  pretence  that  the  Club  of  Clichy  threatened  his  life  with  daggers  was 
nonsense ;  but  in  his  irritation  he  knew  no  moderation,  and  he  actually 
despatched  a  stiletto  with  his  letter,  as  a  specimen  of  the  weapons  wherewith 
his  life  was  menaced.  As  he  often  said,  there  is  but  one  step  from  the  sublime 
to  the  ridiculous,  and  this  step  he  now  took. 

He  called  on  the  Government  to  suppress  the  reactionary  journals  that 
dared  to  criticise  his  conduct,  to  break  the  presses,  and  to  tolerate  only  such 
newspapers  as  were  officially  inspired. 

The  crisis  neared.  One  side  or  other  would  appeal  to  arms ;  the  Directory 
to  maintain  its  supremacy,  or  the  Constitutionals  to  upset  it. 

The  latter  party  was,  unhappily,  clogged  with  the  Royalists,  who  com- 
manded no  sympathy  among  the  soldiers  or  the  peasantry. 

The  latter  were  afraid  of  losing  the  domains  they  had  secured  ;  the  former 
were  opposed  to  a  Royalist  restoration,  because  the  young  officers  had  no 
inclination  to  see  themselves  displaced  to  make  way  for  noble  emigres. 

Aware  of  their  danger,  the  Directory  sounded  the  army.  It  was  illegal, 
according  to  the  Constitution,  to  call  on  the  soldiers  to  debate  on  political 
matters,  but  they  took  occasion  of  the  anniversary  of  the  storming  of  the 
Bastille  (July  14th)  as  a  means  of  exciting  their  political  and  partisan  feelings. 
The  commanders  of  the  armies  on  the  Rhine,  on  the  Meuse,  in  the  Alps,  and 
in  Italy  were  invited  to  pronounce  for  the  Directory,  and  asked  if  they  could 
be  relied  on  in  the  event  of  a  struggle. 

Moreau  gave  an  evasive  reply ;  Hoche  was  ready  ;  so  also  was  Napoleon. 
The  latter  issued  the  following  address  to  his  soldiers  : — 

•"To-day  is  the  anniversary  of  the  14th  July.  You  see  before  you  the 
names  of  your  comrades  who  have  fallen  on  the  field  of  honour,  for  the  liberty 
of  your  country.  They  have  furnished  you  with  a  brilliant  example.  You  owe 
yourselves  entirely  to  the  Republic,  to  the  welfare  of  thirty  millions  of  French- 
men, and  to  the  glory  of  that  name  which  has  received  new  lustre  by  your 
victories. 

"  Soldiers,  I  know  that  you  are  deeply  affected  at  the  misfortunes  that 
threaten  your  country  ;  but  your  country  is  in  no  real  danger.  The  same  men 
who  triumphed  over  a  coalition  of  Europe  exist  still.  Mountains  separate  us 
from  France  ;  but^  if  needful,  you  will  cross  them  with  the  rapidity  of  an  eagky 
to  support  the  Constitution^  and  to  protect  the  Republican  Government. 


THE    i8th    FRUCTIDOR  159 

"  Soldiers,  the  Government  watches  over  the  sanctuary  of  the  laws.  The 
Royalists,  as  soon  as  they  show  themselves,  will  cease  to  exist.  Do  not 
be  alarmed  ;  let  us  swear  by  the  manes  of  the  heroes  who  fell  beside  us  in  the 
struggle  for  liberty  ;  let  us  swear  on  our  new  standards — Implacable  war  to  the 
enemies  of  the  Republic  and  of  the  Constitution." 

There  is  in  this  address  a  cool  effrontery  and  a  deliberate  perversion  of 
facts  which  are  almost  amusing.  It  exhibits  the  manner  in  which  Napoleon 
had  adopted  the  Republican  cant  to  pervert  truths.  It  was  illegality,  interfer- 
ence with  Constitutional  rights,  that  had  made  the  Directory  obnoxious  to  the 
French  people. 

The  generals  under  Napoleon  drew  up  addresses  to  the  Government, 
to  which  they  invited  the  soldiers  to  subscribe.  The  most  violent  of  these  was 
that  of  General  Augereau,  who  threatened  at  once  to  march  to  Paris  at  the  head 
of  his  troops. 

This  announcement  aroused  the  greatest  excitement  in  the  capital.  It  was 
a  declaration  of  civil  war  ;  and  it  was  because  he  was  afraid  of  the  Frankenstein 
he  had  created  that  Barras  deemed  it  expedient  to  call  to  his  aid  the  less 
ambitious  and  less  dreaded  Hoche.  The  then  Minister  of  War  was  dismissed, 
and  Hoche  appointed  in  his  room.  At  the  head  of  a  portion  of  his  troops, 
Hoche  entered  Paris  on  the  17th  July,  under  the  colour  of  proceeding  to  the 
coast  to  attempt  an  invasion  of  England.  But  as  he  passed  through  the 
streets,  he  was  saluted  with  cries  of  "  We  are  being  surrounded — besieged  by 
cannon  and  by  troops."  The  Directory  was  intimidated.  Barras  thought  he 
had  been  too  precipitate,  that  the  moment  for  striking  with  effect  was  not 
arrived,  and  he  hastily  cancelled  the  orders  he  had  given  and  bade  the  soldiers 
withdraw  (28th  July).  With  bitterness  in  his  heart,  wounded  and  deceived, 
Hoche  withdrew  to  his  camp  on  the  Rhine,  there  suddenly  and  mysteriously  to 
die.*  The  death  of  Hoche,  and  the  apathy  of  Moreau,  left  Barras  no  other  re- 
source than  to  appeal  to  Napoleon.  If  the  conqueror  of  Italy  was  to  assist 
him,  it  must  be  with  more  circumspection  and  less  display. 

Bonaparte  had,  in  the  meanwhile,  sent  his  aide-de-camp,  Lavallette,  to  Paris, 
to  inform  him  how  matters  stood. 

Carnot  and  Barras  had  come  to  an  open  quarrel  over  the  rickety  table  in  the 
Council  of  the  Ancients.  "  There  is  not  a  flea  on  your  whole  body  which  is  not 
justified  in  spitting  in  your  face ! "  was  the  elegant  exclamation  of  the  latter. 
"  I  despise  your  insults,"  answered  Carnot,  "  but  the  day  will  come  when  I  shall 
give  you  a  suitable  reply."  Barras  was  determined  that  that  day  should  not 
arrive.     "  I  will  kill  him  !  "  he  exclaimed  to  his  colleagues. 

Lavallette  goes  on  to  say  : — 

"  The  house  of  Barras  was  open  to  me.  All  his  speeches  breathed  hatred 
and  vengeance.  A  month  before  the  catastrophe  took  place  it  was  secretly  re- 
solved to  make  it  terrible,  and  the  victims  were  all  marked  out.  My  position 
and  my  duty  forbade  my  taking  any  part  in  the  contest,  but  I  wrote  the  truth 

*  Accusations  of  poison  were  made  against  the  Royalists  and  against  Napoleon  ;  they  were  wholly 
unfounded.     The  Directory  ordered  a  post-mortem  examination,  which  revealed  nothing. 


i6o        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

to  General  Bonaparte.  I  observed  to  him  that  he  would  tarnish  his  glory  if  he 
gave  any  support  to  acts  of  violence,  which  the  situation  of  the  Government  did 
not  make  necessary ;  that  nobody  would  pardon  him  if  he  joined  the  Directory 
in  their  plan  to  overthrow  the  Constitution  and  Liberty  ;  that  proscriptions 
were  about  to  take  place  against  the  National  Representatives,  and  against 
citizens  whose  virtues  made  them  worthy  of  respect ;  that  punishments  would 
be  inflicted  without  trial ;  and  that  the  hatred  resulting  from  such  measures 
would  extend,  not  only  to  the  Directory,  but  to  the  whole  system  of  Republi- 
can Government.  Besides,  it  was  by  no  means  certain  that  the  party  that  was 
to  be  proscribed  really  desired  the  return  of  the  Bourbons."  * 

Barras  was  uneasy  when  he  found  that  the  agent  of  Bonaparte  wrote  letters 
in  cipher  to  his  master ;  and  he  became  more  so  when  Napoleon,  in  his  corre- 
spondence, avoided  all  allusion  to  the  interior  situation  of  France,  and  then  for 
six  weeks  ceased  to  write. 

The  letters  of  Lavallette  had  made  him  hesitate.  He  deemed  it  advisable 
not  himself  to  appear  on  the  scene,  but  to  control  the  results  by  means  of  his 
agents  ;  and  for  this  purpose  he  employed  two  of  very  different  character  and 
calibre — the  vain  firebrand  Augereau,  daring,  but  devoid  of  brains,  and  the  cold 
and  cautious  Bernadotte.  The  success  of  the  Directory  was  essential  to  Bona- 
parte ;  but  he  desired  to  avoid  being  again  associated  with  a  street  fight, 
in  which  he  would  have  to  blow  Frenchmen  into  eternity  with  a  whiff  of  grape. 
This  he  would  leave  to  Augereau,  on  whom  all  the  blame  of  failure  and  un- 
popularity of  success  might  be  cast.  To  assist  Barras,  he  sent  him  three 
million  francs.  He  also  despatched  money  to  the  several  armies,  and  to 
the  fleet.  This  was  a  notice  to  the  soldiers  and  sailors,  to  whom  it  was 
that  they  must  look  to  find  the  pay  that  the  Government  was  incapable 
of  furnishing. 

As  Colonel  Jung  happily  says,  Barras  accomplished  the  13th  Vendemiaire 
with  Bonaparte,  Bonaparte  accomplished  the  i8th  Fructidor  with  Barras,  in 
preparation  for  the  i8th  Brumaire,  which  he  was  about  to  undertake  and 
carry  through  without  Barras.  "For  the  apprentice  of  Ajaccio,  the  i8th 
Fructidor  was  a  coup  d'essai,  a  sort  of  political  sounding."  f 

Barras  had  money,  supplied  by  Bonaparte,  and  he  had  troops.  Detach- 
ments of  troops  were  secretly  introduced  into  Paris,  and  placed  under  the 
command  of  Augereau,  who  rode  about  in  splendid  regimentals,  glittering  with 
diamonds,  the  spoil  of  the  shrines  of  Italy,  announcing  that  he  had  come  to 
kill  all  Royalists. 

The  Legislature,  alarmed,  decreed  the  immediate  arming  of  the  National 
Guard,  and  that  Pichegru  should  place  himself  at  their  head.  But  whilst  he 
hesitated,  Augereau  put  some  grape  and  canister  into  his  guns,  and,  with 
twelve  thousand  men  and  forty  pieces  of  artillery,  surrounded  the  Tuileries. 
Eight  hundred  Grenadiers  of  the  Guard  were  under  arms  behind  the  rails  to 
defend  the  Legislative  bodies,  but  they  had  been  gained  with  the  money 
forwarded  by  Napoleon.     Pichegru   and   above  sixty  other  members  of  the 

*  Memoirs  of  Lavallette  (English  ed.,  1831),  i.  253.  t  Jung,  iii.  178. 


THE    i8th    FRUCTIDOR  i6i 

Legislature  were  thrown  into  the  Temple.  Carnot  and  Barthelemy  were 
ejected  from  the  Directory,  and  their  places  filled  with  Merlin  de  Douai,  a 
timid,  submissive  lawyer,  and  FranCois  de  Neufchateau,  a  scribbler  of  senti- 
mental ve'rses. 

The  arrested  Deputies,  and  the  editors,  proprietors,  and  writers  of  forty- 
two  journals,  without  trial,  were  despatched  to  perish  in  the  swamps  of 
Cayenne. 

On  the  1st  Vendemiaire  the  Directors  and  the  Ministers,  and  all  the 
constituted  authorities,  marched  to  the  Champ  de  Mars  to  celebrate  the  New 
Year,  according  to  the  Revolutionary  Calendar ;  and  Barras,  standing  at  the 
altar  of  La  Patrie,  harangued  the  multitude  on  the  great  triumph  that  had 
been  won  over  the  enemies  of  the  Government. 

The  coup  d'etat  of  the  i8th  Fructidor  owed  its  success  to  Bonaparte,  who 
had  pulled  all  the  threads,  and  had  supplied  men  and  means  to  make  it 
successful,  without  in  any  way  showing  his  hand.  It  was  as  important  to  him 
as  to  the  three  Directors.  It  had  swept  aside  all  those  likely  to  criticise  his 
action,  but  he  was  perfectly  aware  that  the  Directors  he  had  sustained  eyed  him 
with  suspicion. 

So  long  as  Hoche  lived,  they  had  another  to  whom  to  turn  ;  but  the  oppor- 
tune death  of  Hoche  left  Napoleon  in  undisturbed  mastery.  The  five  gentle- 
men dressed  up  in  theatrical  cloaks,  with  round  caps  on  their  heads,  and 
rosettes  on  their  pumps,  who  figured  at  the  head  of  the  Government, 
Bonaparte  knew  served  as  a  mere  stop-gap,  till  it  suited  his  convenience  to 
turn  them  out. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Year  III.  was  rotten,  and  inspired  no  regard.  It 
would  be  hard  to  say  whether  the  Directory  inspired  more  contempt  or 
dislike. 

Barras  was  afraid  of  his  young  protege,  and  would  gladly  have  been  rid  of 
him  had  it  been  possible.  Meanwhile,  Talleyrand,  who  had  been  appointed 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  with  insight  as  to  the  person  with  whom  the  power 
lay,  had  begun  a  correspondence  with  the  conqueror  of  Italy. 

After  the  i8th  Fructidor,  Augereau,  who  had  made  himself  useful,  but  was 
now  troublesome,  was  dismissed  to  take  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the 
Rhine  and  Moselle,  where  he  blustered  and  bragged  that  he  was  a  better  man 
than  Bonaparte. 

As  Barras  and  his  confederates  felt  that  the  ground  under  their  feet  was 
rocking,  they  knew  of  no  other  means  for  retaining  their  position,  than  by  dis- 
tracting public  attention  from  themselves  by  foreign  war.  A  condition  of  war 
allowed  of  much  independence  of  action  to  themselves,  and  had  this  additional 
advantage,  that  it  kept  generals  and  soldiers  employed  at  a  distance ;  and  so 
long  as  an  army  maintained  itself  at  the  expense  of  a  country  overrun,  there 
was  no  immediate  occasion  for  bringing  hostilities  to  an  end. 

The  Directors  accordingly  wrote  to  Napoleon  to  break  off  negotiations  with 
Austria ;  but  to  this  he  paid  no  attention,  and  he  signed  the  Treaty  of  Campo- 
Formio  against  their  orders. 


i62        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Bourrienne,  who  was  with  Napoleon  at  the  time  as  his  secretary,  says — 

"  At  this  period  Napoleon  was  still  swayed  with  the  impulse  of  the  age. 
He  thought  of  nothing  but  Representative  Governments.  Often  has  he  said  to 
me, '  I  should  like  the  era  of  such  to  be  dated  from  my  time.'" 

But  his  acts  belie  his  words. 

That  he  flourished  such  phrases  as  had  become  popular  is  certain.  They 
still  told  on  the  soldiery,  they  had  effect  on  the  population  of  Italy.  But  that 
other  thoughts  were  in  his  mind  would  appear  from  the  question  put  to 
General  Dupuis,  "Que  feriez-vous,  si  je  me  faisais  roi  d'ltalie?"  To  which 
Dupuis  answered,  "  Je  vous  tuerais  de  ma  main." 


XXIII 


IN  PARIS 


(October  17,  1797— May  4,  179S) 


"nr^HE  peace  articles  between  France  and 
-^  Austria  had  been  signed  at  Campo-Formio, 
■on  the  17th  October.  The  Emperor  ceded  to 
France  all  the  Netherlands,  and  the  left  bank 
•of  the  Rhine,  with  Mayence,  the  great  outpost 
and  bulwark  of  Germany.  He  gave  up,  nominally 
to  the  people  of  North  Italy,  but  virtually  to  the 
French,  all  that  he  had  held  in  Lombardy ;  he 
acknowledged  the  independence  of  the  Milanese 
•and  Mantuan  States,  under  their  new  name  of 
the  Cisalpine  Republic ;  and  he  consented  that 
the  French  Republic  should  have  the  Ionian 
Islands,  which  then  belonged  to  Venice,  together 
with  the  Venetian  possessions  in  Albania.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  French  Republic  handed  over 
Venice,  with  its  territory  in  Italy  as  far  as  the 
Adige,  together  with  Istria  and  Dalmatia.  But  the 
provinces  between  the  Adige  and  the  Adda  were 
to  be  incorporated  into  the  Cisalpine  Republic ; 
Modena,   and    the   Papal    provinces   of   Bologna, 

Ferrara,   Ravenna,   Faenza,   and    Rimini   were   also    annexed    to    this    North 
Italian  Republic. 

The  treaty  of  Campo-Formio  had  been  concluded  in  all  haste  by  Napoleon, 
•against  the  orders  received  by  him  from  the  Directory,  and  only  a  few  hours 
before  a  second  courier  from  Paris  was  due  with  more  emphatic  condemnation 
■of  his  agreement  to  give  up  Venetia  to  the  Emperor.  But  if  the  Government 
in  Paris  was  dissatisfied,  so  also  was  Thugut,  the  Imperial  Prime  Minister,  who 
had  been  overborne  by  the  determination  of  the  populace,  the  nobility,  and  the 
Court  to  have  peace  at  any  price.  He  saw  that  this  was  no  enduring  peace, 
that  it  was  cobbled  up  to  suit  Napoleon's  convenience,  and  that  it  would  be 
torn  to  shreds  so  soon  as  he  saw  an  opportunity  for  renewing  the  conflict. 

The  peace  of  Campo-Formio  was  a  necessity  to  Napoleon.     The  Alps  were 

163 


BUST   BY  THORWALDSEN. 


i64        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

putting  on  their  winter  caps,  and  snow  and  short  days  would  impede  opera- 
tions against  Austria.  He  had  gained  a  foothold  on  the  Adriatic,  and  was 
now  turning  a  wistful  eye  on  Malta.  He  had  formed  the  design  of  an  Oriental 
campaign,  in  order  to  outflank  Austria,  and  nip  Germany  between  France  on 
one  side  and  a  victorious  army  of  the  East  on  the  other.  To  facilitate  the 
execution  of  this  scheme,  he  had  devoted  much  attention  to  the  formation  of  a 
navy.  That  he  might  obtain  leave  to  carry  it  out,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
visit  Paris. 

On  the  13th  September,  he  wrote  to  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  :  "Why 
should  we  not  seize  on  the  island  of  Malta?  Admiral  Brueys  might  anchor 
there  and  take  it.  Four  hundred  knights  and  a  regiment  of  five  hundred  men 
alone  constitute  the  garrison  of  Valetta.  The  inhabitants  are  favourable  to  us, 
and  are  sick  of  their  knights.  With  the  isle  of  S.  Peter  in  our  possession, 
ceded  us  by  the  King  of  Sardinia,  with  Malta,  Corfu,  &c.,  we  shall  be  masters 
of  the  Mediterranean.  If,  upon  making  peace  with  England,  we  are  obliged  to 
cede  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  it  will  be  necessary  for  us  to  secure  Egypt.  To 
armies  such  as  ours,  indifferent  to  all  religions — to  that  of  the  Mahomedan,  the 
Copt,  the  Arab,  and  to  Idolatry — we  can  respect  one  like  another." 

Napoleon  was  aware  that  he  had  everything  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand. 
Pichegru  was  in  exile,  Moreau  in  disgrace,  Hoche  was  dead.  He  was  without 
a  rival,  save  the  braggart  Augereau,  and  he  took  the  first  opportunity  after  his 
return  to  Paris  to  have  him  sent  to  kick  his  heels  at  Perpignan.  The  Directory 
was  discredited.  The  army  was  devoted  to  him,  and  the  people  of  France 
were  looking  towards  him  as  one  who  might  give  them  a  stable  and  respect- 
able Government. 

As  was  the  way  with  him  when  he  had  a  scheme  in  his  head  and  was  pre- 
pared to  act  energetically,  he  feigned  lassitude,  sickness,  a  longing  for  repose, 
and  distaste  for  honours. 

On  the  25th  September,  he  wrote :  "  I  beg  you  will  replace  me,  and  accept 
my  resignation.  .  .  .  My  health,  which  is  greatly  shattered,  demands  repose 
and  tranquillity.     Too  long  has  great  power  been  lodged  in  my  hands." 

On  October  ist:  "The  arrangements  I  make  at  this  moment  constitute  the 
last  service  I  can  render  to  my  country.  My  health  is  entirely  broken.  I  can 
hardly  mount  my  horse.     I  need  two  years'  repose." 

On  the  loth  October,  when  the  treaty  of  Campo-Formio  was  virtually  con- 
cluded, he  assured  the  Directory  that  nothing  now  remained  for  him  but  to 
take  hold  of  the  plough  of  Cincinnatus,  and  set  an  example  how  a  man  should 
respect  the  Government,  and  do  all  in  his  power  to  set  aside  the  danger  of  a 
military  despotism — the  rock  on  which  so  many  Republics  had  been  wrecked. 

Nothing,  however,  was  further  from  his  thoughts  than  retirement  from  the 
scene.  He  was,  at  the  time,  in  private  correspondence  with  Talleyrand  and 
Sieyes  relative  to  a  new  Constitution.  He  drew  out  his  scheme,  and  submitted 
it  to  them  for  consideration.  In  preparing  for  his  return  to  Paris,  Napoleon 
had  two  ends  in  view — alternative  plans ;  the  one,  if  the  aspect  of  affairs  in 
France  proved  such  as  promised  success,  then  at  once  to  upset  the  Directory. 


IN    PARIS  165 

If,  however,  the  time  for  such  a  bold  venture  had  not  arrived,  then  to  prosecute 
his  Oriental  scheme,  and  urge  the  Directory  to  give  him  a  free  hand  to  occupy 
Egypt  and  push  East,  either  with  the  object  of  attacking  England  through 
India,  or  else  of  circumventing  the  head  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  crushing 
the  Ottoman  Empire. 

On  the  eve  of  his  departure  from  Italy,  Bonaparte  issued  a  proclamation  to 
the  Cisalpine  Republic  he  had  called  into  existence,  stuffed  with  commonplaces 
about  freedom  and  popular  representation,  the  overthrow  of  tyrannies,  and  the 
consecration  of  the  will  of  the  people.  At  the  same  time,  he  took  measures  to 
place  his  own  creatures  in  the  administration. 

Simultaneously,  also,  he  advised  his  brother  Joseph,  who  was  representative 
of  the  French  Republic  at  Rome,  to  use  underhand  means  to  stir  up  revolution 
both  there  and  in  Naples,  so  as  to  provide  an  excuse  for  interference,  and  the 
overthrow  of  the  Papal  sovereignty  and  the  Neapolitan  kingdom. 

On  the  17th  October  he  wrote  to  Talleyrand:  "Our  Government  must 
destroy  the  English  Monarchy,  or  expect  itself  to  be  destroyed  by  these 
intriguing  and  enterprising  islanders.  The  present  moment  offers  a  capital 
opportunity.  Let  us  concentrate  all  our  efforts  on  the  navy,  and  annihilate 
England.     That  done,  Europe  is  at  our  feet." 

To  the  Directory  he  wrote,  on  the  5th  November :  "  For  an  expedition 
against  England  we  require — ist,  good  naval  officers;  2nd,  a  great  army,  well 
commanded;  3rd,  an  intelligent  and  determined  general-in-chief ;  4th,  thirty 
million  francs  in  ready  money.  .  .  .  Although  I  truly  need  repose,  yet  I  shall 
not  refuse,  as  far  as  possible,  to  sacrifice  myself  for  my  country." 

As  Napoleon  said,  the  opportunity  for  an  invasion  of  England  was  come. 
She  was  without  an  ally,  the  fleet  was  in  mutiny,  the  Bank  had  suspended  cash 
payments  ;  moreover,  rebellion  was  simmering  in  Ireland. 

An  invasion  of  Great  Britain  was  determined  on,  Bonaparte  appointed  in 
command,  and  the  cream  of  the  Army  of  Italy  was  drafted  to  form  that  of 
England. 

On  his  way  through  Switzerland,  Napoleon  arrested  and  imprisoned  the 
banker  Bontemps,  who  had  assisted  Carnot  to  escape  proscription.  Bonaparte 
owed  much  to  Carnot ;  he  had  been  for  long  on  terms  of  friendship  with  him, 
and  had  so  completely  hoodwinked  him  up  to  the  eve  of  the  i8th  Fructidor, 
that  the  Director  even  then  believed  him  trustworthy.  Napoleon  passed 
through  Nyon,  where  he  was  hiding,  and  Carnot  illumined  his  windows.  "  I 
was  so  positive,"  wrote  he  in  his  Metnoires,  "  that  Bonaparte  had  not  taken  any 
part  in  my  banishment,  that  I  was  on  the  point  of  writing  to  ask  for  an  interview, 
and  I  only  refrained  through  fear  of  compromising  him."  He  was  afterwards 
convinced  that,  if  Bonaparte  had  known  he  was  there,  he  would  have  seized  on 
him  and  deported  him,  without  compunction,  to  the  swamps  of  Cayenne. 

At  Lausanne,  Napoleon  received  the  ovation  of  the  democratic  party,  and 
prepared  for  a  rising  in  the  Canton  of  Vaud  against  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Bernese. 

Bonaparte  reached  Paris  on  the  5th  December,  and  took  up  his  lodging  in  a 


i66        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


small  house  in  the  Rue  Chantereine,  that  belonged  to  Josephine.  On  his 
arrival,  he  was  immediately  visited  by  Barras.  The  head  officials  of  the 
Department  of  the  Seine  inquired  when  it  would  be  convenient  for  the  General 
to  receive  them,  and  he  at  once  forestalled  them  by  visiting  them  himself.  He 
exhibited  the  same  urbanity  by  calling  on  all  functionaries,  down  to  the  Juges- 
de  Paix.  The  Moniteur  praised  his  simplicity,  modesty,  graciousness  of 
address.  He  drove  about  in  a  carriage  drawn  by  a  pair  of  horses,  and  without 
retinue  ;  and  he  somewhat  ostentatiously  showed  himself  engaged  on  the  flower 
beds  in  his  little  garden. 

At  Montebello,  he  had 
surrounded  himself  with  royal, 
state ;  at  Paris,  he  exhibited 
himself  as  a  plain  citizen,  and 
avoided  every  kind  of  display. 
On  the  loth  December,  a 
great  festival  was  celebrated 
to  commemorate  the  conclu- 
sion of  Peace.  The  Court  of 
the  Luxembourg  was  trans- 
formed into  an  amphitheatre; 
at  one  extremity  was  erected 
the  altar  of  La  Patrie,  on 
which  were  grouped  statues  of 
Liberty,  Peace,  and  Equality ; 
and  it  was  adorned  with  the 
standards  captured  in  Italy. 
Behind  it  were  fifty  thrones 
for  the  Ancients  and  the 
Ministers,  who  attended 
rigged  out  in  their  fantastic 
costumes. 

The  festival  began  v/ith  a 
chorale  that  was  interrupted 
by  a  roar  of  applause  as  the  Victor  of  Italy  appeared,  small,  sallow-faced^ 
and  looking  what  he  affected  to  be — out  of  health. 

All  rose  and  removed  their  hats,  handkerchiefs  were  waved,  incense  was 
thrown  'into  the  standing  braziers,  and  Talleyrand,  as  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  stepped  forward  to  welcome  the  General.  He  did  so  in  a  fulsome 
address,  in  which  he  lauded  Napoleon  as  the  Champion  of  Liberty,  the  breaker 
of  the  chains  imposed  by  tyranny,  and  withal  a  stoic  hero,  who  had  no  love  for 
pomp  and  reward,  but  delighted  in  study,  in  art,  and  in  living  in  obscurity. 
Bonaparte  answered  :— 

"  Citizens,  Directors : — The  French  people,  to  be  free,  was  constrained  to 
conquer  Kings.  To  obtain  a  Constitution  founded  on  reason,  it  had  to  conquer 
the  prejudices  of  eighteen  centuries.     The  Constitution  of  the  year  III.  and 


LE   GENERAL   DE   LA   GRANDE   NATION. 
Unfinished  profile  by  David. 


IN    PARIS  167 

yourselves  have  overcome  all  these  impediments.  Religion,  Feudalism,  Royalty 
for  twenty  centuries  have  ruled  Europe  in  succession ;  but  the  epoch  of  Con- 
stitutionalism dates  from  the  conclusion  of  the  Peace  recently  signed. 

"  It  has  been  your  good  fortune  to  organise  a  mighty  nation,  so  that  its 
territory  extends  to  those  frontiers  Nature  has  herself  planted. 

"You  have  done  more.  The  two  finest  portions  of  Europe  (the  Netherlands 
and  Italy),  the  nurseries  of  Art,  Science,  and  great  men,  inspired  with  the  fairest 
hopes,  will  see  the  genius  of  Freedom  rise  out  of  the  graves  of  their  ancestors. 
These  are  two  pedestals  on  which  the  fate  of  two  mighty  nations  rests. 

"  I  have  the  honour  to  hand  over  to  you  the  terms  of  Peace  signed  by  His 
Majesty  the  Emperor,  at  Campo-Formio.  Peace  assures  the  freedom,  the  weal, 
and  the  fame  of  the  Republic. 

"  So  soon  as  the  good  fortune  of  the  French  people  shall  be  based  on  the 
best  organised  laws,  then  all  Europe  will  be  free." 

The  last  paragraph  was  the  only  one  of  real  significance.  It  contained  a 
hint  that  he  did  not  consider  the  Constitution  of  the  year  III.  as  final. 

When  the  applause  that  echoed  this  address  had  died  away,  Barras  rose,  and 
in  a  pompous  address,  after  enumerating  Napoleon's  exploits,  and  comparing 
him  to  Socrates,  to  Caesar,  and  to  Pompey,  said  :  "  Go  and  chain  up  that 
gigantic  freebooter  who  oppresses  the  seas.  Go  and  chastise  in  London 
outrages  that  have  been  left  too  long  unpunished.  Numerous  votaries  of 
liberty  await  you  there." 

Notwithstanding  this  ovation,  Bonaparte  was  aware  of  the  mistrust  he 
inspired.  Augereau  liad  plainly  told  the  Directory  that  the  little  Corsican  was 
ambitious,  and  was  no  sincere  friend  to  Democratic  ideas.  His  own  country- 
man, Arena,  had  not  only  accused  him  to  the  Directors  of  having  "  stolen 
twenty  millions  in  Italy,"  but  had  added,  "  Liberty  has  no  greater  foe  to  fear 
than  Bonaparte."  Treacherous  himself.  Napoleon  suspected  treachery  in  others. 
He  despised  and  hated  the  Directory,  and  purposed  upsetting  it ;  he  knew  very 
well  that  the  Directors  hated  him,  and  would  like  to  be  rid  of  him. 

He  endeavoured  to  have  himself  appointed  to  the  Directory,  but  was  con- 
fronted with  the  rule  which  forbade  any  man  being  made  Director  under  the 
age  of  forty.  After  vain  attempts  to  get  the  law  modified  in  his  favour,  Bona- 
parte was  obliged  to  abandon  this  hope ;  and  then  he  turned  his  attention  more 
vigorously  than  before  to  the  scheme  of  an  invasion  of  England,  and,  if  that 
were  not  possible,  then  to  an  occupation  of  Egypt. 

He  did  not  much  appreciate  the  incense  offered  him  by  the  people  of  Paris. 
"  Bah  ! "  said  he.  "  The  mob  would  crowd  as  thick  to  see  me  on  my  way  to  the 
scaffold." 

To  Bourrienne  he  said  : — "  Europe  is  a  mole-hill.  It  is  only  in  the  East  that 
great  empires  and  revolutions  are  possible,  where  there  are  six  hundred  millions 
of  men. " 

Madame  Junot  records  a  conversation,  or  rather  gives  a  summary  of  several 
that  her  brother  Albert  had,  at  this  time,  with  Bonaparte,  relating  to  his  designs. 
After  a  visit  to  Napoleon,  Albert  de  Permon  said  to  his  mother : — 

"I  can  plainly  see  that  his  great  spirit  stifles  in  the  contracted  space  to  which 
these  needy  Directors  wish  to  confine  it.     It  demands  a  free  flight  irt  infinite 


i68        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

space.  If  he  remains  here,  it  will  be  his  death.  This  morning  he  said  to  me, 
'  Paris  weighs  me  down  like  a  cloak  of  lead  ! '  and  then  began  pacing  his  room. 
'  And  yet/  replied  Albert,  '  never  did  grateful  country  hail  one  of  its  sons  more 
cordially.  The  moment  you  appear,  the  streets,  the  promenades,  the  theatres 
ring  with  shouts  of  Vive  Bonaparte  !     The  people  love  you.  General. '  " 

"While  my  brother  thus  spoke,"  says  Mme.  Junot,  "Bonaparte  looked 
steadily  at  him.  He  stood  motionless,  his  hands  crossed  behind  him,  and  his 
whole  countenance  expressing  attention  mingled  with  interest.  He  then  re- 
sumed his  walk  with  a  pensive  look.  '  What  think  you  of  the  East,  Permon  ? ' 
he  abruptly  asked.  '  Your  father  destined  you  for  the  diplomatic  line.  You 
speak  modern  Greek?'  Albert  nodded  assent.  'And  Arabic?'  Albert 
answered  in  the  negative,  adding  that  he  could  learn  to  speak  it  in  a  month. 

"'  Indeed  !  well,  in  that  case,  1 '  here  Bonaparte  paused,  as  if  fearful  of 

having  committed  himself  He  nevertheless  reverted  to  the  subject  a  moment 
afterwards,  and  asked  Albert  if  he  had  been  at  M.  de  Talleyrand's  ball.  '  That 
was  a  delightful  fete  ....  it  was  more  magnificent  than  our  royal  enter- 
tainments of  old.  The  Directory  ought  not  thus  to  forget  its  Republican 
origin.  There  is  affectation  in  such  pomp  displayed  before  those  who  can 
upset  it.  /  represent  the  Army  I  added  Bonaparte,  '-yes,  I  i^epresent  the  Army, 
and  the  Directors  know  now  whether  or  not  the  A  rmy  is  a  powei^ful  factor  in 
France^ 

"  Albert  told  Bonaparte  that  it  was  generally  believed  that  the  projected 
expedition  was  destined  against  England.  The  smile  that  now  played  about 
Napoleon's  lips  had  so  strange,  so  incomprehensible  an  expression,  that  Albert 
could  not  tell  what  to  make  of  it.  '  England  ! '  said  Bonaparte,  '  so  you  think 
we  are  going  to  attack  it  at  last !  The  Parisians  are  not  mistaken  ;  it  is  indeed 
to  humble  that  saucy  nation  we  are  arming.  Yes — war  with  England  for  ever, 
to  its  utter  destruction  ! ' " 

Bonaparte  started  for  the  north  coast,  to  examine  the  preparations  made 
for  the  descent  upon  the  English  coast.  He  questioned  the  pilots  and  sailors, 
collected  information  relative  to  the  marine  strength  of  Great  Britain,  examined 
into  the  condition  of  the  French  fleet,  and  returned  to  Paris  to  report  that 
nothing  was  ready  or  would  be  for  months  to  come,  and  that  he  was  not 
disposed  to  risk  the  fate  of  France  on  such  an  uncertain  throw. 

Actually,  Bonaparte  had  no  desire  to  make  a  direct  attack  on  our  island. 
His  imagination  was  fired  with  the  idea  of  an  Oriental  Empire,  and  his  way 
to  that  was  through  Egypt. 

To  accompany  him,  Napoleon  collected  his  best  officers  who  had  served 
him  in  Italy,  and  the  pick  of  the  soldiers  as  well.  He  gathered  together 
besides  a  body  of  scientific  men,  who  would  not  merely  collect  material  for 
the  profit  of  the  learned,  but  would  be  able  to  advise  on  the  development 
of  the  industries  and  resources  of  the  land  he  was  about  to  invade. 

A  further  reason  actuated  Bonaparte  in  urging  on  the  expedition  to  Egypt, 
in  addition  to  the  chimerical  scheme  of  founding  an  Oriental  Empire.  He 
wished  to  be  out  of  France  for  a  while  ;  the  pear  was  not  ripe,  as  he  said.  The 
Directory  was  discredited,  but  the  country  was  not  ready  to  rise  with  acclama- 
tion, if  he  attempted  to  overthrow  it.  His  best  chance  was  to  go  to  a  distance, 
add  to  the  splendour  of  his  name,  and  leave  the  Directory  to  stultify  itself 


IN    PARIS  169 

Inevitably,  with  time,  it  would  go  to  pieces  ;  it  would  be  injudicious  to  pre- 
cipitate its  fall,  and  he  desired  to  be  dissociated  from  it  when  it  fell. 

Nor  did  he  desire  to  be  associated  with  any  one  of  the  parties,  then  watch-  ; 
ing  each  other,  ready  to  fly  at  each  other's  throats,  Anarchists,  Royalists,  Con-  ! 
stitutionals,  whilst  the  great  mass  of  the  people  cared  only  for  tranquillity  and  \j 
the  pursuit  of  material  advantages.     This  was  manifest  in  Paris,  and  it  was 
predominant  in  the  country.* 

Before  leaving  Italy  he  had  said  to  Miot  de  Melito  :— "  I  can  no  longer 
obey.  I  have  tasted  the  pleasures  of  command,  and  I  cannot  renounce  it.  If  I 
cannot  be  master,  I  shall  quit  France. "f 

At  Brienne,  Napoleon  had  been  a  diligent  student  of  English  history.  He 
was  ready  to  play  the  part  of  a  Cromwell,  but  not  of  a  Monk.  One  day  his 
uncle,  Fesch,  found  him  reading  the  life  of  the  great  Protector,  and  asked  him 
what  he  thought  of  the  usurper. 

"  Cromwell,"  he  replied,  "  is  fine — but  incomplete." 

"  How  so  ?  "  asked  Fesch,  and  looked  at  the  volume. 

"  It  is  not  of  the  book  I  speak,"  answered  he  hastily,  "  but  of  the  man."  J 

On  the  eve  of  starting,  an  incident  almost  changed  the  purpose  of  Bona- 
parte. At  Vienna,  the  French  Ambassador,  Bernadotte,  had  been  insulted 
by  the  city  mob.  Bonaparte  rushed  before  the  Directory,  and  demanded  that 
the  affront  should  be  resented,  and  asked  to  be  sent  to  the  Congress  of  Rastadt 
to  demand  redress.  The  Directory  nominated  another  instead.  Then  he 
declared  that,  under  the  circumstances,  he  would  not  leave  Europe ;  he  would 
send  in  his  resignation.  "  Do  so,  sign  it,  you  have  need  of  repose,"  said 
Rewbell,§  and  extended  to  him  the  pen.  Merlin  snatched  it  away.  Bonaparte 
withdrew  in  a  fury.  On  the  morrow  Barras  urged  him  to  depart  as  quickly 
as  possible.     *'  Believe  me,"  said  he,  "  I  give  you  the  best  advice  possible." 

On  the  3rd  May,  1798,  Napoleon  started  for  Toulon,  taking  his  wife  with 
him  as  far  as  that  port.  At  the  last  moment  he  again  hesitated.  He  felt  that 
the  Directory  was  so  lost  in  public  confidence,  that  he  was  inclined — as 
Mathieu  Dumas  tells  us  in  his  Memoires — to  turn  back  and  overthrow  it. 
But  the  sight  of  the  fleet,  admirably  ordered,  and  under  the  command  of  the 
great  Admirals,  Brueys,  Gantheaume,  Villeneuve,  and  Decres,  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  troops,  the  hopes  of  his  generals,  the  ardour  of  the  savants  he  took  with 
him,  roused  again  in  his  imagination  the  dreams  of  Oriental  conquest,  and  he 
postponed  the  attempt  to  a  more  suitable  occasion. 

*  "  Paris  veut  de  la  tranquillite,  il  est  actuellement  plus  facile  d'en  obtenir  de  la  soumission  que  de 
renthousiasme."     Rapport  du  Bureau  central  des  Dep.  de  la  Seine,  March  12,  1798. 

t  Miot,  Mi?n.  i.  184.  %  Secret  Mem.,  by  C.  DoRis,  1815. 

\  According  to  another  account  it  was  La  Reveillere-Lepeaux. 


A 


XXIV 


THE    FAMILY    BONAPARTE    IN    1797 

T  this  time  the  author  of  the  curious  Secret  Memoirs^  by  one  who  never 
quitted  Napoleon  for  fifteen  years  ^  was  connected  with  him. 

He  says,  "  I  must  confess  that  I  was  by  no  means  prepossessed  with  his 
exterior.  I  had  formed  to  myself  the  most  engaging  portrait  of  the  conqueror 
of  Italy.  I  was  surprised,  even  humiliated,  to  find  him  a  man  of  a  very 
ordinary  cast.  His  deportment  had  nothing  in  it  that  was  striking ;  his 
physiognomy  had  neither  the  fire  nor  the  dignity  of  a  hero ;  his  manner  was 
devoid  of  ease,  and  had  a  strong  tincture  of  his  cold,  dry,  and  laconic  mode  of 
speech.  Taken  altogether,  he  inspired  neither  confidence  nor  respect ;  the 
principal  feeling  he  inspired  was  a  desire  to  get  out  of  his  presence  as  quickly 
as  might  be.  His  severe  and  disdainful  glance  indicated  the  man  who  com- 
mands, but  not  him  who  is  to  be  admired. 

"  First  impressions  have  always  a  stronger  influence  on  a  young  man  than 
on  one  who  is  older.  The  unfavourable  impression  produced  on  me  by 
Bonaparte  made  a  sudden  revolution  in  my  wishes  with  regard  to  the  pro- 
fession I  thought  of  embracing,  and  I  desired  the  relation  who  was  my  patron 
not  to  speak  to  the  General  in  my  behalf.  At  this  time  I  was  introduced  to 
M.  d'Harved  the  elder,  who  had  been  much  acquainted  with  Bonaparte  both 
at  Brienne  and  at  the  Military  School  in  Paris.  I  communicated  to  him  the 
impression  produced  on  me  by  first  sight  of  the  celebrated  Corsican,  and  he 
said  frankly  to  me  :  '  You,  who  are  young,  judge  of  men  by  their  outward 
appearance,  and,  in  so  doing,  resemble  the  multitude.  But,  mark  me,  think 
otherwise  of  Bonaparte ;  this  man,  be  assured,  will  create  a  new  era  in  the 
world.  1  will  say  more — if  Europe  were  not  now  full  of  his  name,  Asia  would 
for  two  years  have  resounded  with  it.  Bonaparte,'  continued  M.  d'Harved,  '  is 
born  to  command  mankind.  He  knows  it ;  he  is  but  too  impressed  with  the 
conviction.  His  first  successes  have  augmented  and  confirmed  it.  Perhaps 
he  may  not  have  all  the  qualities  for  realising  his  ambitious  views,  but  he 
conceives  that  he  has  them,  and  that  is  enough.  He  knows  not  how  to  make 
himself  beloved,  but  he  does  know  how  to  make  himself  obeyed.  In  the  part 
he  now  plays,  and  in  those  he  probably  will  play,  these  two  qualities  will  make 
his  fortune.  His  air,  coldly  concentrated,  and  his  unabated  moroseness,  have 
established  him  in  the  mind  of  the  vulgar  as  a  superior  being.  The  emulation 
not  to  be  as  others,  and  to  impose  laws  on  others,  was  planted  in  his  very 
being.  At  Brienne,  at  the  Military  School  of  Paris,  as  a  sub-lieutenant,  he 
thought  the  same,  and  he  will  never  think  otherwise.  If  he  did  not  command 
men,  he  would  hector  his  servant-maid.  He  believes  himself  superior  to  all 
men,  and  values  others  very  little. 

" '  If  France  has  chanced  to  be  the  theatre  of  his  d^but,  it  is  because  the 

170 


THE    FAMILY    BONAPARTE    IN    1797 


171 


opportunity  there  first  presented  itself  to  him.  An  ardent  thirst  for  domina- 
tion made  him  a  cosmopolitan  from  his  earliest  years.  His  true  country  will 
ever  be  that  in  which  he  will  acquire  the  greatest  power.  To  him  the  banks 
of  the  Seine  and  the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus  are  alike  indifferent.'" 

We  may  here  add  a  few  details  relative  to  the  family  Bonaparte,  which  had 
thriven  with  the  rising  star  of  Napoleon. 

Joseph  had  been  appointed,  as  we  have  seen,  representative  of  the  French 
Republic  at  Rome,  where  he  remained  till  the  riot  broke  out,  which  led  to  the 
death  of  General  Duphot.     Joseph,  accom- 
panied   by    his    wife    and    family,    had 
arrived    in    Rome   on    August    31 
1797,  and  lodged  in  a  new  hotel 
on   the    Piazza   di    Spagna,   but 
afterwards  moved  into  a  splen- 
did  official   residence    in  the 
Corsini  Palace.      He  had   in 
his   suite   Eugene    Beauhar- 
nais,  a  youth   of  seventeen, 
and    General    Duphot,   who 
was   only  seven-and-twenty, 
and     was     engaged     to     be 
married     to    Desiree     Clary, 
sister  of  Joseph's  wife,  Julie, 
which   latter    Barras    describes 
as  ugly  and  pimpled.    Joseph  had 
received    special    instructions   from 
his  brother  to  foment  insurrection.^  He 
did    not    esteem    the    quality    of    the 
Roman      patriots,     for     he     wrote     to 
Napoleon  :     "  They   think   like    Brutus, 

talk  like  women,  and  act  like  children."  The  riot  he  was  encouraging  secretly 
broke  out  on  the  27th  December,  and  in  it  Duphot  was  shot. 

Desiree  Clary  was  not  inconsolable :  she  hid  her  tears  eight  months  after  the 
murder  of  her  lover  behind  a  wedding  veil,  when  she  married  Bernadotte  (Aug. 
1 6th,  1798). 

Lucien  Bonaparte,  the  ex-Brutus,  had  been  appointed  Commissioner  of  War 
to  the  Army  of  the  North.  There  were  several  reasons  why  Napoleon  did  not 
want  him  near  himself.  He  was  a  bad-tempered,  inordinately  vain,  and  perverse 
man,  and  could  not  endure  to  witness  his  brother's  success.  His  wife,  Christine, 
was  uneducated.  Hardly  was  he  with  the  Army  of  the  North  before  he 
quarrelled  with  the  other  officials,  had  to  leave,  and  came  to  his  brother  at 
Milan,  where  he  was  not  very  cordially  received,  and  ordered  not  to  visit  Paris, 
as  he  proposed.  He  disobeyed,  and  Napoleon  wrote  to  Carnot  to  have  him 
despatched  to  Corsica.  He  was  accordingly  sent  to  Ajaccio.  There,  Lucien 
succeeded  in  getting  himself  elected  Deputy  to  the  Five  Hundred.     As  he  was 


MEDALLION   OF   BONAPARTE. 
By  David. 


172        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

born  in  1775,  he  was  not  of  age  for  admission  into  the  Council,  and  it  would 
seem  probable  that  he  made  use  of  the  false  certificate  of  birth  which  he  had 
employed  for  his  marriage,  and  which  gave  him  the  requisite  age  of  twenty- 
five  instead  of  twenty-two.  How  he  got  his  election  acknowledged  is  hard 
to  say,  but  it  was  not  challenged,  and  he  was  in  Paris  at  the  beginning 
of  1798. 

Louis  Bonaparte  had  been  appointed  captain  in  1796,  and  was  aide-de- 
camp to  his  brother  Napoleon.  He  was  then  aged  eighteen.  He  had  been 
but  three  and  a  half  months  at  the  Military  School,  Chalons,  and  when,  at  the 
Bureau  of  Artillery,  his  request  for  promotion  was  refused,  he  appealed  to  the 
Directory,  with  a  statement  of  services,  which  was  characteristic  of  the  way  in 
which  the  Bonapartes  systematically  made  false  statements.  He  gave  his  date 
of  birth  wrong — 5th  Sept.,  1776,  whereas  he  was  really  born  on  the  2nd  Sept, 
1778  ;  he  pretended  that  he  had  become  adjutant  of  an  artillery  regiment  on 
the  28th  Frimaire,  in  the  year  I.  (i8th  December,  1792)  ;  lieutenant  on  the  4th 
Brumaire,  in  the  year  HI.  (25th  October,  1794)  ;  aide-de-camp  22nd  Brumaire, 
IV.  (i2th  November,  1795)  ;  that  he  had  served  in  four  campaigns  ;  had  been  at 
the  taking  of  Toulon ;  also  in  the  military  campaigns  in  Italy.  And  this 
wonderful  document  was  attended  by  three  certificates,  authenticating  the 
statements,  nearly  all  of  which  were  false.  However,  he  obtained  his  promotion, 
and  accompanied  his  brother  to  Egypt. 

Laetitia  Bonaparte  had  remained  at  Marseilles  till  May,  1795,  when  she 
went  to  Italy,  and  there,  for  the  first  time,  met  Josephine.  She  afterwards  went 
with  Joseph  to  Rome,  and  after  the  affair  of  Duphot,  left  for  Corsica,  taking 
along  with  her  the  youngest  daughter  Caroline.  Elise  was  married  on  May 
5th,  1797,  to  a  Corsican,  Paschal  Bacciochi,  a  good  fiddler. 

Pauline  had  been  in  love  with  Freron,  and  he  with  her.  He  was  a  fop, 
good-looking,  but  with  infamous  antecedents.  As  long  as  convenient,  and 
whilst  Napoleon  wanted  the  help  of  Freron,  he  favoured  the  suit,  but  no  sooner 
had  he  his  foot  in  the  stirrup,  than  he  insisted  on  the  engagement  being  broken 
off.  Napoleon  took  Pauline  to  Italy,  where  she  was  retained,  alongside  of 
Josephine,  to  cool  her  passion.  Her  love-letters  have  been  preserved,  and  show 
considerable  ardour  in  that  shallow  mind.  This  is  a  sample  :  ''  Ti  amo  sempre, 
e  passionattissimamente,  per  sempre  ti  amo,  o  bell'  idol  mio,  sei  cuore  mio, 
tenero  amico,  ti  amo,  amo,  amo,  si  amatissimo  amante."  He  was  unworthy  of 
her  love — this  blood-stained,  scurrilous  petit  hiaitre. 

Josephine  received  as  tender  letters  from  Napoleon,  but  she  did  not  return 
his  love  with  the  same  ardour.  "Too  Creole,  too  nonchalant,  too  accustomed  to 
the  thousand  nothings  of  Paris  life,  and  to  the  sweets  of  her  little  nest  in  the 
Rue  Chantereine,  to  resolve  to  take  a  decision,  Josephine  contented  herself  with 
piling  up  these  burning  letters  in  her  writing-desk,  and  she  put  off  to  the 
morrow  the  answer  so  greatly  desired.  And,  it  must  be  admitted,  this  ardour 
frightened  her  more  than  it  attracted  her."  * 

Napoleon  had  been  very  impatient  because  she  did  not  go  to  him  in  Italy  ; 

*  Jung,  iii.  237. 


THE    FAMILY    BONAPARTE    IN    1797  173 

he  became  jealous,  and  believed  she  had  formed  an  attachment  in  Paris  ;  he 
even  wrote  to  Carnot  that  he  held  this  to  be  the  case.  However,  after  a  while 
she  did  go  to  Italy,  and  was  well  content  to  reign  as  a  queen  in  Montebello, 
amidst  a  glittering  court.  But  she  had  been  attended  into  Italy  by  the  young 
Captain  Hippolyte  Charles,  of  the  staff  of  General  Leclerc,  and  a  flirtation 
sprang  up  between  them,  that  was  continued  in  a  flickering,  trifling  manner  all 
the  time  she  was  in  Italy,  and  later  was  the  occasion  of  a  quarrel  with  her 
husband. 


XXV 

EGYPT 

(1798) 

THE  eyes  of  France  had  been  turned  covetously  upon  Egypt  from  the 
time  of  Philip  the  Fair,  to  whom  his  minister,  Pierre  de  Blois,  had  pro- 
posed the  conquest.  But  the  Hundred  Years'  War,  and  the  religious  broils, 
had  occupied  the  attention  and  exhausted  the  energies  of  the  Crown,  and 
nothing  had  been  done  to  acquire  it. 

The  most  valuable  colonies  possessed  by  the  French  in  America  and  India, 
had  been  wrested  from  them  by  the  English,  who,  except  for  a  short  interval 
■during  the  previous  war,  had  assumed  and  maintained  the  dominion  of  the 
seas. 

Choiseul,  the  minister  of  Louis  XV.,  had  advised  the  annexation  of  Egypt, 
a.s  the  surest  way  of  reaching  India,  and  it  was  with  an  eye  to  this  that 
Corsica  had  been  purchased  from  the  Genoese.  The  French  people  had  felt 
keenly  the  humiliation  of  their  losses  in  the  East  and  West,  and  this  feeling 
had  been  one  of  the  factors  in  the  revolt  against  the  Bourbon  dynasty. 

The  long-desired  opportunity  seemed  to  have  arrived.  The  English  fleet 
had  been  withdrawn  from  the  Mediterranean  to  guard  the  Channel,  whilst  a 
portion  blockaded  the  Spanish  navy  in  Cadiz.  The  Turks  had  no  fleet.  Those 
■of  Genoa  and  Venice  were  incorporated  into  that  of  France,  which  had  been 
formed  under  the  eye  of  Napoleon. 

Given  a  fair  wind  and  a  smooth  sea,  in  a  few  days  the  transports  would 
land  the  invading  host  at  Alexandria. 

Napoleon  kept  counsel  to  the  last.  When  he  had  persuaded  the  Directory 
to  an  attack  on  England  through  Egypt,  they  also  were  discreet  enough  not  to 
allow  the  scheme  to  transpire,  so  that  the  English  were  in  complete  ignorance 
•of  the  destination  of  the  fleet  collected  at  Toulon,  and  the  troops  massed  there. 
It  was  believed  by  the  Ministry  in  London,  that  the  object  of  the  French  was 
to  relieve  Cadiz  and  liberate  the  Spanish  fleet,  then  to  sail  north,  and  unite 
with  the  fleet  at  Brest,  for  a  descent  upon  England  and  Ireland. 

As  already  intimated.  Napoleon  selected  the  cream  of  the  troops  and 
officers  who  had  served  under  him  in  Italy.  But  when  Dessaix,  who  was 
to  accompany  the  expedition,  heard  of  the  destination  of  the  army,  all  he  said 
■was,  "  The  project  is  good,  if  practicable." 

174 


EGYPT 


175 


Napoleon  would  not  hear  of  objections,  nor  entertain  doubts.  To  the 
Directors  he  promised,  "  No  sooner  shall  I  be  master  of  Egypt  and  the  master 
of  Palestine,  than  England  will  be  glad  to  give  you  a  first-class  ship  for  a  sack 
•of  corn."* 

And  yet — such  an  undertaking  was  reckless,  and  it  is  surprising  that  a 
•Government  composed  of  able  men  should  have  sanctioned  it. 

Napoleon  proposed  with- 
<irawing  from  France  40,000  of 
her  best  troops  and  generals, 
and  carrying  them  into  an 
unknown  African  region,  into 
the  midst  of  lagoons  and  deserts, 
which  had  consumed  a  French 
Jhost  in  the  13th  century;  and 
that  at  a  moment  when  a 
Congress  was  sitting  to  settle 
the  peace  of  Europe ;  when 
Switzerland  had  been  invaded, 
Rome  occupied  ;  when  the 
Home  Government  comprised 
five  ambitious  men  envious  of 
-each  other,  and  in  constant  an- 
tagonism, without  any  support 
in  the  country,  the  head  of  no 
party,  hated  and  despised  by  all. 
Anarchy  threatened  in  France  ; 
and  on  the  frontiers  Europe 
was  but  waiting  an  opportunity 
to  rise  against  and  overwhelm 
the  enemy  of  the  common  order, 
and  the  disturber  of  peace. 

Bonaparte,  for  his  part,  knew 
how  tottering  was  the  position 
of  the  Directory,  how  feeble 
were  the  armies  on  the  frontiers, 
liow  many  elements  of  con- 
fusion were  seething  in  the  heart  of  France.  But  it  was  precisely  for  this 
reason  that  he  was  desirous  of  being  out  of  France.  Whilst  he  reaped  laurels, 
and  his  name  rang  in  the  ears  of  Europe,  of  the  world,  and  he  dazzled  all  eyes 
by  his  victories,  he  would  allow  France  to  feel  her  impotence  without  him,  let 
her  become  a  prey  to  revolution  once  more ;  then  when  he  returned,  having 
conquered  an  Oriental  Empire,  he  would  be  hailed  by  all  as  Dictator  and 
-despotic  head  of  France,  to  save  her  from  her  own  factious  children,  and  to 
maintain  her  name  high  among  those  of  the  nations.  He  frankly  confessed  this  as 

*  Lavallette,  ii. 


BUST   OF    BONAPARTE. 
By  Houdon,  in  the  Museum  at  Dijon. 


176        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

one  of  his  objects,  in  his  Memoirs,  written  at  S.  Helena.  "  That  he  might  become 
master  of  France,  it  was  necessary  that  the  Directory  should  meet  with  reverses 
during  his  absence,  and  that  his  return  should  restore  victory  to  our  banners." 
)  One  thing  only  was  wanting,  and  that  was  money  for  the  expedition.  It 
was  for  this  purpose  that  the  French  invaded  Switzerland,  and  for  this  Rome 
was  occupied  and  pillaged  to  the  last  lira.  Of  the  Swiss  expedition,  Napoleon 
himself  said,  "  Another  motive,  not  less  influential  in  the  decisions  of  the  Direc- 
tory, was  the  millions  of  Berne,  which  it  coveted."  Berthier,  sent  to  Rome, 
wrote  to  his  General-in-Chief,  admitting  that  the  invasion  was  fiscal  rather 
than  political.  "  In  sending  me  to  Rome,  you  make  me  Treasurer  of  the 
English  expedition.  I  shall  use  my  best  endeavours  to  fill  the  chest."  Haller, 
the  unprincipled  Swiss,  was  commissioned  to  find  supplies  for  the  expedition 
to  Egypt  At  Berne,  Brunne,  who  commanded,  succeeded  in  laying  his  hand 
on  over  16,000,000  francs  in  coin  and  in  ingots,  7,000,000  in  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion, and  18,000,000  in  requisitions  of  other  sorts.  Of  this  a  portion  was  at 
once  despatched  to  Toulon.  "  Such,"  says  Lanfrey,  "  was  now  the  work  on 
which  the  Republican  armies  were  employed — armies  so  well  known  at  first  for 
their  disinterestedness,  their  nobleness,  and  their  integrity.  Two  years  of  war 
in  Italy  had  sufficed  to  operate  this  change."* 

On  the  1 2th  April,  1798,  the  Directory  signed  the  articles  relative  to  the 
expedition  to  Egypt;  but  they  were  kept  secret,  as  it  was  pre-eminently 
important  that  the  destination  of  the  army  should  not  be  known  to  the  Eng- 
lish. The  army  was  to  be  entitled  that  of  Egypt.  It  was  to  comprise  that 
previously  called  the  Army  of  England,  and  was  to  be  supplemented  by  such 
divisions  as  could  be  spared  from  Italy;  Malta  was  to  be  taken,  and  Egypt  ; 
and  the  isthmus  of  Suez  was  to  be  cut  through.  Brunne  was  to  succeed 
Berthier  in  Italy,  and  Lannes  to  take  Brunne's  place  in  Switzerland. 

On  the  17th  April,  Bonaparte  wrote  to  Vice- Admiral  Brueys  at  Toulon: 
"  On  the  first  decade  of  Florial,  I  shall  be  on  board  your  ship.  Have  a  good 
bed  prepared  for  me,  as  for  a  man  who  will  be  sea-sick  throughout  the  voyage. 
.  .  .  You  are  the  only  person  to  whom  I  have  announced  my  coming  to  Toulon, 
so  do  not  speak  of  it." 

On  May  3rd,  Napoleon  left  Paris.  On  the  eve  of  his  embarkation  he 
reviewed  the  troops,  and  addressed  them  an  allocution  : — 

"  Soldiers,"  said  he,  "  it  is  now  two  years  since  I  took  command  of  you.  At 
that  time  you  were  on  the  Riviera  of  Genoa,  in  the  greatest  misery,  lacking 
everything,  having  even  sold  your  watches  to  furnish  yourselves  with  food.  I 
promised  to  put  an  end  to  your  miseries.  I  led  you  into  Italy.  There  you  had 
everything.  Did  I  not  keep  my  word?  Learn,  then,  that  you  have  not  yet 
done  enough  for  your  country,  and  that  your  country  has  not  yet  done  enough 
for  you.  I  am  about  to  lead  you  into  a  land  where  by  your  exploits  you  will 
surpass  those  which  have  hitherto  astounded  your  admirers,  and  you  will 
render  your  country  such  services  as  she  has  the  right  to  expect  of  an  army  of 
invincibles.  I  promise  to  each  soldier,  on  his  return  from  this  expedition,  that 
he  will  have  enough  to  buy  six  arpents  (over  six  acres)  of  land  each."i- 

*  Hist,  de  Napoleon,  1869,  i.  360.        t  "  Six  acres  and  a  cow,"  the  first  offer  of  this  sort  to  cupidity. 


EGYPT  177 

This  appeal  to  cupidity  was  a  little  too  plainly  worded,  and  the  Moniteur, 
two  days  later,  published  a  revised  edition,  and  pretended  that  the  first  "  was 
not  sufficiently  reflected  over,  nor  sufficiently  dignified  to  be  the  work  of  the 
conqueror  of  Italy."  If,  however,  we  compare  it  with  the  address  made  to  the 
army  when  he  first  took  command,  we  do  not  see  any  reason  to  doubt  its 
genuineness.  The  French  fleet  of  transports  sailed  on  May  19th.  The  Eng- 
lish, still  convinced  that  all  the  preparations  made  at  Toulon  were  for  a  descent 
on  England,  contented  themselves  with  guarding  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  and 
left  an  inconsiderable  squadron,  under  Nelson,  to  blockade  Toulon.  A  con- 
tinuance of  gales  drove  the  English  fleet  to  take  shelter  behind  Sardinia,  and 
the  French  took  the  opportunity  to  sail  out  of  Toulon.  This  fleet  was  joined 
at  Malta  by  contingents  from  Ajaccio  and  Civita-Vecchia,  and  consisted  of  13 
men-of-war,  14  frigates,  72  corvettes,  and  500  transports,  manned  with  10,000 
sailors,  and  conveying  25,000  soldiers. 

A  singular  spectacle  that  of  the  quarter-deck  of  the  Admiral's  ship, 
LOrient,  on  which  were  gathered  not  only  the  best  generals  of  the  French 
Republican  armies,  but  also  the  pick  of  her  scientific  men.  Bonaparte  was 
(officially)  only  twenty-nine,  but  he  was  the  sun  around  which  this  constella- 
tion circled.  He  usually  held  the  lead  in  the  conversations,  or  rather  alone 
spoke,  as  an  oracle ;  and  his  language,  poetical,  animated,  full  of  images, 
seemed,  as  he  neared  Egypt,  to  assume  that  Oriental  tint  which  thenceforth 
coloured  his  official  bulletins.  He  spoke  of  Hannibal  and  the  campaigns  of 
Rome  and  Carthage,  passed  in  review  the  great  captains  of  ancient  and 
modern  times ;  and  his  epic  accounts,  in  which  his  memory  did  not  always 
support  history,  told  in  mid-Mediterranean  under  the  starry  sky,  as  the  ship 
threw  up  phosphorescent  waves  in  passing  through  the  water,  gave  to  the 
expedition  something  of  the  legendary  romance  of  the  voyage  of  the  Argo- 
nauts. 

The  imagination  of  the  soldiers  was  roused.  They  sought  to  lighten  the 
tedium  of  the  voyage  by  acting  little  dramas,  the  plot  of  which  consisted  in  an 
Arab  father  who  maltreated  his  lovely  daughter,  a  black-eyed  houri,  sparkling 
with  jewels,  and  her  arms  encircled  with  bangles.  A  young  French  soldier 
arrives,  chastises  the  inhuman  parent,  and  carries  off  the  lovely  maiden,  who 
pours  all  her  treasures  of  gold  and  jewels  into  his  cap. 

On  the  9th  of  June  the  fleet  arrived  before  Malta.  The  Knights  of  the 
Order  might  well  have  defended  the  island,  but  the  French  among  them  had 
been  worked  upon  and  bribed.  Hompesch,  the  Grand  Master,  a  weak  old  man, 
was  bullied  and  terrified  by  these  traitors.  He  capitulated  on  the  nth,  instead 
of  manning  the  works  of  La  Valetta,  which  might  have  defied  the  whole  French 
fleet  and  army  for  months,  whereas  every  moment  was  precious  to  them,  and 
they  were  full  of  apprehension,  knowing  that  the  British  fleet  was  not  far  off. 
"  On  my  word,"  said  General  Caffarelli,  "  it  is  as  well  that  there  is  someone  in 
the  place  to  open  the  gates  to  us,  for  without  that  we  should  never  have  got  in." 
After  plundering  the  churches  and  the  chests  of  the  Knights,  and  carrying  off 
no  inconsiderable  amount  of  gold  and  silver,  Bonaparte  re-embarked  on  the 

N 


178        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

19th  for  Egypt,  leaving  General  Vaubois  and  a  garrison  to  take  care  of  Malta. 
As  the  French  fleet  sailed  by  the  Island  of  Candia,  it  passed  close  to  the 
English  fleet,  but  without  being  seen  by  it ;  for  a  thick  haze  favoured  the 
invaders,  and  thus  prevented  their  annihilation,  and  the  destruction  and 
captivity  of  all  the  troops,  and  of  Bonaparte  himself,  by  Nelson. 


w^ 


NAPOLEON    IN    EGYPT. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


On  the  29th  of  June  the  French  came  in  sight  of  Alexandria ;  and  on  the 
following  day  the  troops  landed  within  three  miles  of  that  city  without  opposi- 
tion, but  with  such  haste  and  confusion,  produced  by  the  dread  lest  Nelson 
should  be  upon  them,  that  a  considerable  number  were  drowned. 

The  town  of  Alexandria  was  easily  taken  ;  and  then  the  march  to  Cairo 
was  begun  across  the  desert.  Some  idea  of  this  may  be  gathered  from  the 
description  in  Napoleon's  own  Memoirs,  dictated  at  S.  Helena  : — 

"  As  the  Hebrews,  wandering  in  the  wilderness,  complained  and  angrily 
asked  Moses  for  the  onions  and  fleshpots  of  Egypt,  so  did  the  French  soldiers 


EGYPT  179 

constantly  request  the  luxury  of  Italy.  In  vain  were  they  assured  that  the 
country  was  the  most  fertile  in  the  world,  that  it  was  even  superior  to  Lom- 
bardy ;  how  were  they  to  be  persuaded  of  this  when  they  could  get  neither 
bread  nor  wine  ?  We  encamped  among  immense  quantities  of  wheat,  but  there 
was  neither  mill  nor  oven  in  the  country.  The  biscuit  brought  from  Alexandria 
had  long  been  exhausted  ;  the  soldiers  were  even  reduced  to  bruise  the  wheat 
between  two  stones  and  to  make  cakes,  which  they  baked  under  the  ashes.  Many 
parched  their  wheat  in  a  pan,  after  which  they  boiled  it.  This  was  the  best  way 
to  use  the  grain  ;  but  after  all,  it  was  not  bread.  The  apprehension  of  the  soldiers 
increased  daily,  and  rose  to  such  a  pitch  that  a  great  number  of  them  said  there 
was  no  great  city  of  Cairo ;  and  that  the  place  bearing  that  name  was  like 
Damanhour,  an  assemblage  of  mere  huts,  destitute  of  everything  that  could 
render  life  agreeable.  To  such  a  melancholy  condition  of  mind  had  they 
brought  themselves,  that  two  dragoons  threw  themselves,  completely  clothed, 
into  the  Nile,  where  they  were  drowned.  It  is  nevertheless  true  that,  though 
there  was  neither  bread  nor  wine,  the  resources  which  were  procured,  with 
wheat,  lentils,  meat,  and  sometimes  pigeons,  furnished  the  army  with  food  of 
some  kind.  But  the  evil  was  in  the  ferment  of  mind.  The  officers  complained 
more  loudly  than  the  men,  because  the  comparison  was  proportionately  more 
disadvantageous  to  them.  In  Egypt  they  found  neither  the  comfortable 
quarters,  the  good  table,  nor  the  luxury  of  Italy.  The  General-in-Chief,  wish- 
ing to  set  an  example,  used  to  bivouac  in  the  midst  of  the  army,  and  in  the 
least  commodious  spots.  No  one  had  either  tent  or  conveniences  ;  the  dinner 
of  Napoleon  and  his  staff  consisted  of  a  dish  of  lentils.  The  soldiers  passed 
the  evenings  in  political  conversations,  discussions,  and  complaints.  '  For  what 
purpose  are  we  come  here  ? '  said  some ;  '  the  Directory  has  sent  us  into  trans- 
portation.' '  Caffarelli,'  said  others,  '  is  the  Agent  that  has  been  employed  to 
deceive  the  General-in-Chief.  .  .  .'  Of  Caffarelli  they  said  further,  in  allusion 
to  his  wooden  leg,  '  He  laughs  at  all  our  troubles  ;  he  has  one  foot  in  France.' " 

Bonaparte  had  hoped  to  arouse  the  spirit  of  the  natives  against  the  Mame- 
lukes. He  issued  proclamation  after  proclamation  in  Arabic.  Of  this  a  speci- 
men will  suffice  : — 

"  We  are  the  true  Mussulmans.  Is  it  not  we  who  have  destroyed  the  Pope, 
who  had  incited  to  war  against  the  Mussulmans  ?  Is  it  not  we  who  have  de- 
stroyed the  Knights  of  Malta,  because  these  fools  thought  that  God  willed  that 
they  should  fight  against  the  Mussulmans  ?  Thrice  happy  those  who  join  us. 
They  will  prosper  in  fortune  and  rank.  Happy  they  who  remain  neutral. 
They  will  have  time  to  consider,  and  will  in  the  end  side  with  us.  But  woe  ! 
thrice  woe!  to  those  who  arm  for  the  Mamelukes,  and  fight  against  us! 
There  is  no  place  of  hope  for  them.     They  shall  perish  ! "  (July  2nd.) 

Before  leaving  Alexandria,  he  had  given  instructions  to  Admiral  Brueys 
what  to  do  with  the  fleet.  He  was  either  (i)  to  enter  the  harbour  of  Alexan- 
dria ;  or,  if  that  was  not  possible,  (2)  to  anchor  in  the  roads  of  Aboukir  ;  and 
(3),  in  the  event  of  this  not  proving  a  suitable  shelter,  to  sail  for  Corfu. 

The  first  of  these  alternatives  was  impossible  of  execution.  The  entrance 
into  the  harbour  was  narrow  and  shallow ;  and  even  if  it  were  possible  to  enter 
it,  to  get  out  again  would  not  be  practicable,  as  a  single  English  man-of-war 
would  have  sufficed  to  blockade  the  entrance,  and  hold  the  entire  fleet 
entrapped.     In    Aboukir,   however,   the   Admiral   hoped  to    extend   his   line. 


i8o        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

and  protect  one  flank  with  a  land  battery.  Before  sailing  for  Corfu  he  would 
have  to  be  provisioned,  and  Napoleon  undertook  to  send  what  was  requisite, 
but  failed  to  do  so. 

Lavallette  details  an  interview  he  had  with  the  Admiral  on  the  2ist  of  July. 
Brueys  complained  to  him  : — 

"  When  General  Bonaparte  left  Alexandria  to  penetrate  into  the  desert,  he 
gave  me  the  choice  to  enter  the  old  port  of  Alexandria,  or  to  go  with  the  fleet 
to  Corfu,  after  having  landed  all  the  goods  and  provisions  of  the  army.  Since 
that  moment  I  have  received  no  account  whatever  from  the  army  nor  its  leader. 
...  It  is  quite  impossible  for  me  to  leave  the  coasts  of  Egypt  before  I  receive 
accounts  from  the  army.  Can  I  set  off  and  enter  a  port  of  Europe  without 
having  any  satisfactory  news  to  give  to  France  and  her  Government?  If, 
what  I  scarcely  think  is  possible.  General  Bonaparte  were  to  encounter  insur- 
mountable obstacles,  and  be  obliged  to  turn  back,  would  it  not  be  a  criminal 
action  on  my  part  to  deprive  him  of  the  only  means  of  retreat  left  at 
my  disposal  ?  " 

On  the  1st  of  August  the  English  fleet  was  signalled. 

Nelson  had  no  sooner  discovered  the  enemy,  of  whom  he  had  been  in 
search  for  seven  weeks,  than  he  prepared  for  engagement. 

Nelson's  plan  was  at  once  formed.  Where  an  enemy's  ship  could  swing, 
there  was  room  for  a  British  one  to  anchor  ;  and  he  resolved  to  pierce  the  line, 
and  station  his  vessels  on  the  inside  of  the  French  line.  Captain  Berry,  when 
he  comprehended  the  scope  of  the  design,  exclaimed — 

"  If  we  succeed,  what  will  the  world  say  ?  " 

"  There  is  no  if  in  the  case,"  answered  Nelson.  "  That  we  shall  succeed  is 
certain.     Who  may  live  to  tell  the  story  is  a  different  question." 

The  result  of  the  battle  is  well  known.  Of  the  thirteen  French  ships  of  the 
line,  eight  surrendered,  one — the  flagship — had  blown  up,  two  escaped  at 
the  time,  but  were  afterwards  captured,  and  two  ran  aground.  The  French 
fleet  was  no  more. 

Meanwhile  Napoleon  had  reached  and  entered  Cairo,  on  the  24th  July,  after 
a  series  of  engagements  with  the  Mamelukes,  in  a  campaign  of  twenty 
days.     The  day  after  he  wrote  to  his  brother  Joseph  : — 

"  You  will  see  in  the  public  papers  the  bulletins  of  the  battles  and  conquest 
of  Egypt,  which  were  sufficiently  contested  to  add  another  wreath  to  the  laurels 
of  this  army.  Egypt  is  richer  than  any  country  in  the  world  in  corn,  rice,  vege- 
tables, and  cattle.  But  the  people  are  in  a  state  of  utter  barbarism.  We  cannot 
procure  money  even  to  pay  the  troops.  I  may  be  in  France  in  two  months.  I 
recommend  my  interests  to  your  care.  I  have  a  great  deal  of  domestic  afflic- 
tion, for  the  veil  has  been  entirely  raised.  You  alone  upon  earth  remain  to  me  ; 
your  friendship  is  very  dear.  ...  It  is  a  sad  position  when  one  has  all 
one's  affections  centred  in  one  heart.  Engage  a  country  house,  to  be  ready  for 
me  on  my  arrival,  either  near  Paris,  or  in  Burgundy,  where  I  mean  to  pass  the 
winter  in  solitude,  for  I  am  tired  of  human  nature.  .  .  .  Glory  is  insipid 
at  twenty-nine  years  of  age.  I  have  exhausted  everything,  and  it  remains  for 
me  only  to  become  egotistical." 


EGYPT  i8i 

The  reason  for  this  despondent  letter  is  not  far  to  seek.  Napoleon's  family 
disliked  Josephine,  whose  levity  and  relaxed  morals  were  not  to  their  taste. 
Bourrienne  relates  a  story  of  Junot  having  indiscreetly  informed  the  General- 
in-Chief  of  one  of  Josephine's  escapades  ;  but  he  puts  this  later  in  the  desert  of 
Syria,  near  Messondiah.  There  is  an  inaccuracy  as  to  the  date  or  place  where 
the  communication  was  made.  From  the  above  letter,  it  would  appear  that 
Napoleon  was  already  disturbed  in  mind  as  to  the  conduct  of  his  wife ;  so  that 
it  is  probable  he  had  already  received  more  than  a  hint  relative  to  her 
conduct. 

Lavallette  tells  the  story  of  how  the  news  of  the  destruction  of  the  fleet 
reached  Napoleon. 

"  It  was  at  Salahieh  that  the  General-in-Chief  learned  the  disaster  of 
our  fleet  at  Aboukir.  The  news  was  brought  to  him  by  an  aide-de-camp 
of  General  Kleber.  The  officer's  horse  being  unable  to  go  any  farther,  he  had 
written  some  particulars  in  an  open  letter,  which  I  found  in  the  hands  of 
a  peasant  to  whom  he  had  entrusted  it.  I  read  the  letter,  and  advancing 
towards  the  General-in-Chief,  I  begged  him  to  withdraw  for  a  moment  from  the 
group  of  staff- officers  which  surrounded  him.  I  then  gave  him  the  note. 
When  he  had  read  it,  he  said  to  me,  '  You  know  its  contents ;  keep  the  secret.' 

"  We  returned  to  Belbeys,  where  we  found  breakfast  on  table.  Everybody 
was  in  good  spirits,  particularly  the  troops,  who  had  retaken  the  spoil  of  the 
caravan  from  the  Mamelukes.  Then  ....  all  on  a  sudden,  while  breakfasting, 
the  General-in-Chief  said  to  his  guests  :  '  It  seems  you  like  this  country.  That 
is  lucky,  for  we  have  now  no  fleet  to  carry  us  back  to  Europe.'  He  then 
acquainted  them  with  the  particulars  of  the  battle  of  the  Nile,  and  they  were 
listened  to  with  much  earnestness  as  the  General  related  them.  Everyone  soon 
appeared  reconciled  to  the  event,  and  nobody  talked  any  more  about  it." 

Napoleon  was  the  less  concerned  about  the  disaster,  as  he  had  no  intention — 
notwithstanding  what  he  wrote  to  Joseph  about  a  country  house  in  Burgundy 
— of  returning  to  Europe.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  in  need  of  reinforce- 
ments, and  he  was  troubled  at  the  difficulty  in  obtaining  them.  The  30,000 
men  he  had  brought  to  Egypt  had  been  intended  for  conquest  of  the  land,  and 
to  hold  it.  But  the  number  was  insufficient.  They  could  not  dream  of  return 
till  their  places  were  filled  by  others.  Bonaparte,  however,  required  them  all, 
and  reinforcements  as  well.  His  tried  soldiers  would  be  the  kernel  of 
his  Army  of  the  East,  which,  sooner  or  later,  was  to  advance  on  India,  or  skirt 
the  Eastern  Mediterranean,  and,  passing  through  Asia  Minor,  fall  on  Turkey, 
and  capture  Constantinople. 

Egypt  had  not  fulfilled  his  anticipations,  and  the  soldiers  were  disgusted. 
"  They  thought,"  says  Bourrienne,  "  of  their  country,  of  their  relations,  of  their 
amours,  of  the  opera."  To  dispel  the  mental  ennui  that  took  possession  of 
every  heart,  Napoleon  wrote  for — "  ist,  a  company  of  actors  ;  2nd,  a  company 
of  dancers;  3rd,  some  dealers  in  marionettes,  at  least  three  or  four;  4th,  a 
hundred  Frenchwomen ;  5th,  the  wives  of  all  the  men  employed  in  the 
corps." 

With  respect  to  the  loss  of  the  French  fleet,  he  set  to  work  at  once  to  cast 


i82        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

all  the  blame  of  the  disaster  on  Admiral  Brueys,*  who  had  been  killed  in  the 
action,  and  could  not  make  answer  for  himself. 

As  Bourrienne  says,  "Bonaparte  had  sent  a  bad  squadron  into  the  midst  of 
the  English  fleets.  It  was  a  piece  of  good  luck  that  he  reached  Egypt.  His 
fleet  was  lost,  which  was  an  eventuality  he  should  have  foreseen  as  more  than 
probable  .  .  .  but  as  it  was  essential  that  Bonaparte  should  experience  no 
reverse  of  fortune,  he  said,  '  If  I  had  been  listened  to,  the  squadron  would  not 

have  perished.'  In  the  hearing  of  his  officers, 
he  exclaimed,  *  Oh,  Brueys,  what  have  you 
done ! ' 

'*  When  alone  with  me,"  says  Bourrienne, 
"  he  gave  free  vent  to  his  emotion.    I  observed 
to  him  that  the  disaster  was  doubtless  great  ; 
but  that  it  would  have  been  irreparable  had 
Nelson  fallen  in  with  us  at  Malta,  or  had  he 
waited    for  us   four-and-twenty  hours  before 
Alexandria,    or    in    the    open    sea. 
'Any  one  of  these  events,'  said  I, 
'which  were  not  only  possible,  but 
probable,  would  have  deprived  us 
of  every  resource.  We  are  bl®ckaded 
here,  but  we   have  provisions  and 
money.      Let  us  wait  patiently  to 
see  what  the  Directory  will  do  for 
us.'      '  The   Directory  ! '    exclaimed 
he  angrily ;   '  the  Directory  is  com- 
posed of  a  set  of  scoundrels  !    They 
envy  and  hate  me,  and  would  gladly 
let  me  perish  here.      Besides,  you 
_     see  how  dissatisfied  the  whole  army 
is  ;  not  a  man  is  willing  to  stay.' "  "f* 

In  Cairo  Bonaparte  pursued  the 
same  policy  initiated  at  Alexandria, 

BRONZE   STATUETTE  OF  BONAPARTE    IN    EGYPT.  ^  ^ 

In  the  possession  of  Prince  Victor  Bonaparte.  that    of    eudcaVOUring    tO    Conciliate 

the  Egyptians  by  the  affectation 
of  being  their  liberator  from  the  Mameluke  yoke,  and  of  being  a  champion  of 
Mohammedanism.  He  had  the  banner  of  the  Sultan  hoisted  alongside  the 
tricolor ;  he  pretended  that  he  was  acting  in  concert  with  the  Commander 
of  the  Faithful ;  he  united  in  the  celebration  of  the  birthday  of  the  Prophet ; 
and  entered  into  discussion  with  the  Imams  as  to  the  mode  of  becoming  a 
Mussulman. 

That  he  really  did  contemplate  becoming  a  Moslem  is  rendered  probable,  if 
we  may  trust  Madame  de  Remusat's  report  of  a  conversation  held  with  him  at 
Boulogne : — 


I  "  After  all,  circumstances  might  have  induced  me  to  turn  Mussulman  .  .  . 

\)3ut  I  would  have  reached  the  Euphrates  first.     A  change  of  religion,  inexcus- 
able  for   the   sake  of   private   interests,  becomes   legitimate  where  immense 

*  In  a  long  despatch  to  the  Directory,  29th  August,  1798.  f  M^moires,  i.  147. 


EGYPT 


183 


political  results  are  involved.  Henry  IV.  was  right  in  saying,  *  Paris  is  well 
worth  a  mass.'  Do  you  think  the  Empire  of  the  East,  and  perhaps  the  sub- 
jugation of  the  whole  of  Asia,  were  not  worth  a  turban  and  loose  trousers?" 

He  made  great  efforts  to  attach  the  sheikhs  to  him.  He  assembled  them, 
and  held  out  to  them  the  anticipation  of  an  Arab  domination  over  Egypt,  now 
that  the  power  of  the  Mamelukes  was  broken.  But  at  the  same  time,  he  assured 
the  Pasha  that  he  was  labouring  to  bring  the  country  under  the  effective  rule 
of  the  Sultan.  To  give  the  sheikhs  a  proof  of  his  good  intentions,  he  con- 
stituted at  Cairo  a  sort  of  municipal  body,  under  the  title  of  Divan,  and 
ordered  that  similar  divans  should  be  formed  in  all  the  provinces;  and  that  they 
should  send  their  deputies  to  Cairo. 
His  rule  in  the  town  was  mild  yet  firm. 
The  administration  of  justice  was  left 
to  the  Cadies. 

Nevertheless,  the  people  were  not 
deceived,  and  throughout  Egypt,  wher- 
ever his  troops  went,  they  were  resisted. 
The  oppressed  fellah,  as  well  as  the 
oppressing  Mameluke,  united  against 
the  common  foe.  The  correspondence 
of  Napoleon  at  this  time  contains  page 
after  page  of  letters  and  orders  for  the 
burning  of  villages,  for  summary  exe- 
cutions, for  the  securing  of  hostages,  for 
making  severe  examples.  In  Cairo 
alone,  heads  fell  at  the  rate  of  from  five 
to  twenty-one  a  day.* 

In  Cairo,  a  revolt  broke  out  on  the 
2 1  St  October,  and  lasted  three  days, 
and  in  it  General  Dupuy  perished.  It 
was  repressed  with  a  severity  that 
savoured  of  Oriental  ideas.  Fifty  Frenchmen  had  fallen  in  this  outbreak.  From 
2,000  to  2,500  insurgents  were  massacred  in  revenge.  Bonaparte  wrote  on  the 
morrow  to  General  Bon  : — "Be  so  good  as  to  order  the  commandant  to  cut  the 
throats  of  all  the  prisoners  taken  with  arms  in  their  hands  ;  they  must  be  con- 
veyed to-night  to  the  bank  of  the  Nile,  and  their  headless  trunks  thrown  into 
the  river."  To  General  Regnier,  he  wrote  on  the  27th  : — "  Every  night  we  cut 
off  thirty  heads,  and  a  good  many  of  those  of  the  chiefs.  .  .  .  Punish  the  Arab 
tribes  that  have  revolted.  The  best  way  to  chastise  the  revolted  villages  is  to 
capture  the  Sheikh-el-Baled,  and  cut  off  his  head."     To  General  Lanusse,  the 

*  Letter  to  Menou,  30th  July,  1798.  "  Les  Turcs  ne  peuvent  se  conduire  que  par  la  plus  grande 
severite  ;  tous  les  jours  je  fais  couper  cinq  ou  six  tetes  dans  les  rues  de  Caire.  Nous  avons  du  menager 
jusqu'a  present  pour  detruire  cette  reputation  de  fureur  qui  nous  precedait  ;  aujourd'hui,  au 
contraire,  il  faut  prendre  le  ton  qui  convient  pour  que  les  peuples  obeissent ;  et  obeir,  pour  eux, 
c'est  craindre." 


BONAPARTE    AND   THE    PASHA   OF    CAIRO. 
From  a  coloured  engraving  of  the  period. 


i84        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

same  day  : — "  Try  and  get  hold  of  the  chiefs,  and  cut  their  heads  off."     Among 
those  executed  were  a  good  many  women. 

A  large  number  of  peasants  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Cairo,  who  had  taken 
part  in  the  revolt,  were  decapitated  ;  and  one  morning  a  string  of  donkeys, 
laden  with  sacks,  and  escorted  by  soldiers,  halted  in  the  middle  of  the  great 
square.  When  a  crowd  was  assembled,  the  sacks  were  opened,  and  the  multi- 
tude saw,  with  horror  and  affright,  the  heads  of  the  butchered  fellaheen  roll  to 
the  ground.  ' 

The  following  is  from  the  Order  of  the  Day,  for  December  8th,  1798: — 
"  When  a  village  revolts,  in  order  to  punish  it,  the  General  in  command  of  the 
district  must  seize  on  all  the  children  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  sixteen  ; 
a  list  of  these  must  be  sent  to  the  General-in-Chief,  who  will  give  orders  respect- 
ing their  ulterior  destination.  When  a  village  deserves  to  be  burned,  care 
should  be  taken  to  carry  off  all  the  children." 

"  Such,"  says  Lanfrey, "  was  the  reality  of  those  brilliant  dreams  which  fixed 
and  dazzled  the  eyes  of  the  world.  If  our  security  demanded  such  hecatombs, 
what  are  we  to  think  of  the  enterprise  which  rendered  them  necessary?  Which 
were  nearest  akin  to  the  traditions  of  ancient  barbarism — these  poor  fellahs, 
who  allowed  themselves  to  be  butchered,  in  their  effort  to  drive  away  the 
strangers,  whom  they  held  to  be  foes  of  their  country  and  their  faith  ;  or  this 
young  ambitious  man,  who  brought  amidst  them  civilization  under  the  forms  of 
violence  and  deception,  and  who,  to  add  one  additional  step  to  his  pedestal,  had 
led  so  many  men  to  death  or  ruin  ?"  * 

The  suppression  of  this  revolt  drew  from  Napoleon  one  of  the  remarkable 
proclamations,  which  show  the  manner  in  which  he  endeavoured  to  impress  the 
Oriental  mind  by  accommodating  his  phrases  to  its  peculiar  ideas. 

"  Sheikhs,  Ulemas,  Imams !  Teach  the  people  that  those  who  become  my 
enemies,  will  have  no  refuge  in  this  world,  or  the  next.  Is  there  anyone  so 
blind  as  not  to  see  that  I  am  the  Man  of  Destiny  ?  Make  the  people  under- 
stand, that  from  the  beginning  of  time  it  was  so  ordained,  that  after  I  have 
destroyed  the  enemies  of  Islam,  and  triumphed  over  the  Cross,  I  should  come 
from  the  remote  parts  of  the  West  to  accomplish  my  predestined  task.  Explain 
to  them  that  my  coming  was  foretold  in  twenty  passages  of  the  Koran.  I  could 
demand  a  reckoning  from  each  one  of  you,  of  the  most  secret  thoughts  of  his 
soul,  since  to  me  everything  is  known,  but  the  day  will  come  when  all  shall 
know  whence  my  commission  is  derived,  and  that  human  efforts  cannot  prevail 
against  me." 

But  this  was  not  a  mere  accommodation  to  Oriental  hyperbole,  an  appeal 
to  the  terrors  of  the  people,  it  was  the  expression  of  Napoleon's  own  conviction. 

In  a  moment  of  ill-humour  after  the  insurrection,  Napoleon  said  to  Kleber : 
"  It  is  all  over.  Never  will  a  European  be  able  to  give  them  laws  for  any  time. 
I  wish  I  were  two  thousand  leagues  off."  But  the  discouragement  was 
momentary ;  to  his  intimates  he  said,  as  he  made  preparations  for  advance 
into  Syria,  "  It  would  be  a  curious  spectacle  indeed  to  see,  eighteen  hundred 

*  Hist,  de  Napoleon^  i.  387. 


EGYPT  185 

years  after  Christ,  a  little   citizen  of  Corsica   become   King  of  Egypt  and 
Jerusalem."  * 

According  to  the  author  who  records  this,  it  was  at  this  time  only  that  Kleber's 
eyes  were  opened  to  the  fact  that  Bonaparte's  object  in  the  Egyptian  expedition 
was  not  the  advantage  of  France,  but  his  own  advancement.  He  had  used  the 
excuse  of  injury  to  be  done  to  England,  in  order  to  prevail  upon  the  Directors 
to  give  him  the  army,  and  furnish  him  with  the  means  for  a  campaign  in  the 
East,  but,  in  his  own  mind,  he  aimed  at  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the 
establishment  for  himself  of  an  Oriental  Empire. 

*  Secret  Memoirs,  1815,  p.  12. 


XXVI 
SYRIA 

(February  ii— October  8,  1799) 

THE  project  of  an  expedition  to  Syria  had  been  in  the  mind  of  Napoleon 
before  he  left  France,  but  it  was  then  his  purpose  to  enter  Syria  only 
in  the  event  of  the  Sublime  Porte  declining  to  be  hoodwinked  into  believing 
that  the  invasion  of  Egypt  was  undertaken  in  the  interests  of  Turkey.  Bona- 
parte did  his  utmost  to  disarm  the  suspicions  of  the  Sultan ;  he  entreated 
Talleyrand,  the  master  of  intrigue  and  deception,  to  undertake  a  mission  to 
Constantinople,  for  the  purpose  of  allaying  his  alarms  and  securing  his  co- 
operation. 

Should  this  latter  be  obtained,  then  Napoleon  resolved  on  forming  a  fleet 
in  the  Red  Sea  and  attempting  the  conquest  of  India.  In  connection  with 
this  project,  he  entered  into  correspondence  with  the  Shah  of  Persia,  and  with 
Tippoo  Sahib.  But  Turkey  was  not  so  easily  duped  ;  it  entered  into  alliance 
with  Russia,  captured  Corfu,  and  collected  two  large  armies,  one  in  Rhodes, 
and  the  other  at  Acre,  which  were  to  unite  and  expel  the  French  from  the 
basin  of  the  Nile.  It  was  at  the  choice  of  Napoleon  either  to  await  the  shock 
of  this  united  host  in  Egypt,  or  to  meet  and  annihilate  them  separately ;  and 
this  latter  was  the  alternative  he  chose.  The  Rhodes  expedition  was  not 
ready  to  sail ;  he  hoped  to  scatter  that  collecting  under  Djezzar  Pasha,  at 
Acre,  after  the  leisurely  fashion  of  Orientals,  and  by  a  rapid  movement  to 
defeat  them  in  detail. 

On  February  loth,  1799,  he  wrote  to  the  Directory  : — 

"  I  am  having  a  corvette  built  at  Suez,  and  I  have  a  flotilla  of  five  despatch 
boats  cruising  in  the  Red  Sea.  .  .  .  Ibrahim  Pasha  and  other  Pashas  threaten 
to  invade  Egypt.  I  start  in  an  hour  to  meet  them.  We  shall  have  to  pass 
nine  days  in  a  desert,  without  grass  or  water.  I  have  collected  a  sufficient 
number  of  camels,  and  hope  we  shall  want  for  nothing.  ...  In  the  operation 
I  am  undertaking  I  have  three  objects  in  view,  ist,  to  ensure  the  conquest 
of  Egypt  by  constructing  a  strong  fort  beyond  the  desert,  &c. ;  2nd,  to  force 
the  Porte  to  give  explanations  ;  3rd,  to  deprive  the  English  cruisers  of  the 
supplies  they  draw  from  Syria. 

"  I  am  accompanied  in  this  expedition  by  the  Mollah,  who,  after  the  Mufti 
of  Constantinople,  is  the  most  revered  man  in  th^«  Mussulman  Empire.  .  .  . 
The  Ramazan,  which  commenced-  yesterday,  was  celebrated  by  me  with  great 
pomp.     I  performed  the  same  functions  that  the  Pasha  used  to  perform." 

186 


SYRIA  187 

On  February  27th  he  wrote  to  Dessaix,  whom  he  left  in  Egypt: — 

"  We  have  crossed  seventy  leagues  of  desert,  which  is  exceedingly  fatiguing  ; 
we  had  brackish  water,  and  often  none  at  all.  We  ate  dogs,  donkeys,  and 
camels.  There  has  been  a  horrible  wind  blowing  for  the  last  three  days, 
and  it  is  pouring  with  rain.  The  sky  is  overcast,  and  the  climate  resembles 
that  of  Paris." 

This  was  written  from  Gaza ;  but  he  had  not  reached  this  place  without 
having  first  to  take  El-Arish.  Here  the  Turkish  garrison  were  allowed  to 
depart  in  the  direction  of  Damascus,  after  having  sworn  on  the  Koran  not 
to  bear  arms  against  the  French  for  a  twelvemonth.  Gaza  fell  without  a 
struggle.     It  was  found  to  contain  large  stores. 

On  the  4th  March  Bonaparte  reached  Jaffa.  On  the  7th  it  was  taken  by 
storm,  and  given  up  to  all  the  horrors  of  a  sack.  During  five  hours  the 
carnage  continued.  Not  only  were  the  soldiers  in  arms  cut  down,  but  those 
of  the  citizens  as  well  who  offered  resistance  to  the  plunder  of  their  houses  and 
the  violation  of  their  wives. 

The  garrison  had  consisted  of  4000,  composed  mostly  of  Albanians  and 
Arnauts.  They  retreated  into  a  caravanserai,  where  they  cried  out  that  they 
were  willing  to  surrender,  on  condition  that  their  lives  were  spared.  This 
Beauharnais  and  Croisier,  Bonaparte's  aides-de-camp,  promised,  whereupon 
the  men  surrendered. 

Bourrienne  says : — 

"  The  aides-de-camp  brought  them  to  our  camp  in  two  divisions,  one  con- 
sisting of  about  2500  men,  and  the  other  of  about  1500.  I  was  walking  with 
General  Bonaparte  in  front  of  his  tent,  when  he  beheld  this  mass  of  men 
approaching :  and,  before  he  even  saw  his  aides-de-camp,  he  said  to  me,  in 
a  tone  of  profound  sorrow,  '  What  do  they  wish  me  to  do  with  these  men  ? 
Have  I  food  for  them  ?  ships  to  convey  them  to  Egypt  or  France  ?  Why  in 
the  devil's  name  have  they  served  me  this  trick  ? ' 

"  After  their  arrival,  and  the  explanations  which  the  Qeneral-in-Chief 
demanded,  and  listened  to  with  anger,  Eugene  (Beauharnais)  and  Croisier 
received  the  most  severe  reprimand  for  their  conduct* 

"  But  the  surrender  was  accomplished.  Four  thousai)^d  men  were  there. 
The  two  aides-de-camp  observed  that  he  had  directed  them  to  restrain  the 
carnage.  '  Yes,  doubtless,'  replied  the  General-in-Chief  with  great  warmth, 
*  as  to  women  and  children  and  old  men — all  the  peaceable  { inhabitants ; 
but  not  with  respect  to  armed  soldiers.  It  was  your  duty  to  die,  rather 
than  bring  these  unfortunate  creatures  to  me.  What  do  you  want  me. 
to  do  with  them  ? '  These  words  were  pronounced  in  the  most  angry 
tone. 

"  The  prisoners  were  then  ordered  to  sit  down,  and  were  placed,  without 
any  order,  in  front  of  the  tents,  their  hands  tied  behind  their  backs.  A 
sombre  determination  was  depicted  on  their  countenances.  We  gave 
them  a  little  biscuit  and  bread,  squeezed  out  of  the  already  scanty  supply 
for  the  army."  ^ 

*  Croisier  fell  before  Acre.  He  had  passed  his  word  to  the  unfortunate  men  that  their  lives  should 
be  spared,  and  they  were  nevertheless  massacred.  He  deliberately  exposed  himself  to  death  at  Acre. 
As  Bourrienne  says,  "Life  had  become  insupportable  to  him  since  that  affair  at  Jaffa." 


i88        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  question  as  to  what  was  to  be  done  was  debated  for  three  days,  and 
then  Napoleon  issued  the  order  to  have  all  shot.  "  Faire  fusilier,  en  prenant 
ses  precautions  de  maniere  qu'il  n'en  echappe  aucun."     (9th  March,  1799.) 

"  Many  of  the  unfortunate  creatures  composing  the  smaller  division,  which 
was  fired  on  close  to  the  sea-coast,  at  some  distance  from  the  other  column, 
succeeded  in  swimming  to  some  reefs  of  rocks  out  of  reach  of  musket-shot. 
The  soldiers  rested  their  muskets  on  the  sand,  and,  to  induce  the  prisoners 
to  return,  employed  the  Egyptian  signs  of  reconciliation  in  use  in  the  country. 
They  came  back  ;  but  as  they  advanced  they  were  killed,  and  disappeared 
among  the  waves. 

"  I  confine  myself  to  those  details  of  this  act  of  dreadful  necessity  of  which 
I  was  an  eye-witness.  Others  who,  like  myself,  saw  it,  have  fortunately  spared 
me  the  recital  of  the  sanguinary  result.  This  atrocious  scene,  when  I  think  of 
it,  still  makes  me  shudder,  as  it  did  on  the  day  I  beheld  it ;  and  I  would  wish  it 
were  possible  for  me  to  forget  it,  rather  than  be  compelled  to  describe  it.  All 
the  horrors  imagination  can  conceive,  relative  to  that  day  of  blood,  would  fall 
short  of  the  reality. 

"  I  have  related  the  truth,  the  whole  truth.  I  was  present  at  all  the  dis- 
cussions, all  the  conferences,  all  the  deliberations.  I  had  not,  as  may  be 
supposed,  a  deliberative  voice ;  but  I  am  bound  to  declare  that  the  situation  of 
the  army,  the  scarcity  of  food,  our  small  numerical  strength,  in  the  midst  of  a 
country  where  every  individual  was  an  enemy,  would  have  induced  me  to  vote 
in  the  affirmative  of  the  proposition  which  was  carried  into  effect,  if  I  had  had 
a  vote  to  give.  It  was  necessary  to  be  on  the  spot  in  order  to  understand  the 
horrible  necessity  which  existed."* 

Napoleon  justified  his  order  afterwards  at  S.  Helena.  He  then  pretended 
that  the  number  put  to  death  was  not  so  great,  and  that  several  of  them  were 
men  who  had  been  in  El-Arish,  and  had  broken  their  parole.  But  no  such 
statement  appears  in  his  orders  at  the  time,  and  it  is  clearly  an  afterthought. 
A  second  excuse  he  then  alleged  was  that  he  sent  a  flag  of  truce  into  the  town 
before  it  was  attacked,  and  that  the  head  of  the  bearer  was  struck  off.  This 
was  true ;  but  though  it  might  justify,  and  would  justify,  the  execution  of  the 
commanding  officer,  it  would  not  that  of  the  entire  garrison.  A  much  better 
plea  was  the  necessity  of  the  case.  The  French  army  was  short  of  food, 
although  in  Gaza  provisions  seem  to  have  been  obtained  ;  but  Bourrienne  may 
be  safely  relied  on  when  he  assures  us  that  food  wp.s  scarce.  Again,  the  French 
army  was  too  small  to  be  able  to  spare  sufficient  men  to  guard  the  prisoners, 
and  they  had  no  vessels  in  which  to  send  them  to  Egypt  or  France.  And  yet, 
•it  may  be  asked,  what  harm  could  3000  unarmed  foreigners  have  done  to 
Napoleon,  if  turned  loose  in  the  desert  ?  Under  the  circumstances.  Napoleon 
would  possibly  have  been  justified,  had  not  the  word  of  honour  been  passed 
assuring  them  their  lives.  The  war  was  unjust ;  and  one  wrong  always  carries 
others  in  its  womb. 

The  war  was  not  being  carried  on  with  humanity,  notwithstanding 
Napoleon's  profession  of  clemency,  and  of  having  come  to  be  the  emancipator 
of  the  people.     To  Murat  he  wrote  on  the  nth  January,  1799,  "Kill  all  the 

*  Bourrienne,  i.  177. 


SYRIA  .  189 

men  you  cannot  take  as  prisoners."  On  the  20th,  to  Berthier,  with  directions 
for  Murat  how  to  deal  with  a  hostile  body  of  Arabs  :  "  Carry  off  their  camels, 
women,  children,  old  men,  convey  them  to  Cairo,  and  kill  every  one  whom  you 
cannot  take."  No  exception  from  this  indiscriminate  slaughter  was  to  be  made 
for  women  and  children. 

With  the  curious  disregard  of  truth — one  may  go  further,  incapacity  for 
speaking  the  truth  at  any  time — that  characterised  Napoleon,  on  the  same  day 
lie  wrote  to  Djezzar  Pasha,  that  he  had  "  treated  those  of  his  troops  which  had 
trusted  to  his  mercy"  with  great  "generosity."  "  In  a  few  days  I  shall  march 
upon  S.  Jean  d'Acre.  Since  God  has  given  me  the  victory,  I  wish  to  follow 
His  example,  and  to  be  clement  and  merciful,  not  only  towards  the  common 
people,  but  towards  the  great." 

Napoleon  now  marched  on  S.  Jean  d'Acre,  and  laid  siege  to  it  on  the  19th 
March.  He  hoped,  in  spite  of  the  strong  fortifications  of  the  place,  and  its 
excellent  roads,  to  be  able  to  take  it  in  a  few  days,  as  he  had  El-Arish  and 
Gaza.  But  he  was  vastly  mistaken.  Djezzar  Pasha's  guns  were  served  partly 
.by  French  engineer  officers — among  them  an  old  school  comrade  of  Bonaparte 
— and  partly  by  English  naval  officers  and  sailors.  Captain  Sir  Sidney  Smith 
ihad  landed  the  latter. 

The  English  naval  officer  brought  two  ships  of  the  line  close  inshore,  to 
harass  the  besiegers  with  their  fire.  Sidney  Smith  was  fully  alive  to  the 
importance  of  Acre  as  the  key  to  Asia  Minor,  and  he  used  his  utmost 
•endeavours  to  stimulate  Djezzar  to  resistance.  But  the  massacre  at  Jaffa  had 
taken  from  the  Mussulman  defenders  every  thought  of  surrender.  Moreover, 
the  English  captain  had  happily  intercepted  the  French  transport  which  was 
conveying  the  siege  train.  Consequently,  when  the  French  army  arrived  before 
the  fortifications,  it  was  reduced  to  battering  the  walls  with  field-pieces,  and 
obliged  to  use  the  cannon-balls  discharged  against  them  by  the  enemy. 

The  garrison  was  further  encouraged  by  the  news  that  an  army  of  25,000  men, 
under  Abdallah  Pasha,  was  marching  to  their  aid  from  Damascus.  But  Bona- 
parte also  knew  of  this,  sent  a  detachment  against  it,  and  completely  routed  it 
in  the  battle  of  Mount  Tabor. 

•  After  spending  sixty  days  before  the  place,  making  seven  or  eight  assaults, 
and  losing  3000  men,  Bonaparte,  baffled,  was  forced  to  retire.  A  more  terrible 
•enemy  than  the  contingent  from  Damascus  had  come  to  the  aid  of  the  besieged. 
The  French  army  had  brought  with  it  the  seeds  of  the  plague,  which  now  began 
to  ravage  the  investing  army. 

On  the  17th  May,  retreat  was  decided  on.  Rage  and  disappointment  were 
in  Napoleon's  heart.  This  little  heap  of  stones,  as  he  called  Acre,  had  marred 
his  destiny.     As  he  said  to  Las  Cases,  at  S.  Helena  : — 

"  Once  possessed  of  Acre,  the  army  would  have  gone  to  Damascus  and  the 
Euphrates ;  the  Christians  of  Syria,  the  Druses,  the  Armenians  would  have 
joined  us.  The  provinces  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  which  speak  Arabic  were 
ready  for  a  change,  and  were  only  waiting  for  a  war.  .  .  .  With  100,000  men 
on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  I  might  have  gone  to  Constantinople  or  to 


I90        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

India;  I  might  have. changed  the  face  of  the  world.  I  should  have  founded 
an  Empire  in  the  East,  and  the  destinies  of  France  would  have  run  a  different 
course." 

"  A  grain  of  sand,"  he  was  wont  to  say  bitterly,  "  had  upset  all  his  projects." 

"  At  Saint  Jean  dAcre,"  said  he  to  his  brother  Lucien,  "  I  missed  my 
destiny."  And  to  Madame  de  Remusat  he  said,  "  The  seductions  of  Oriental 
conquest  turned  me  away  from  the  thoughts  of  Europe  more  than  I  could  have 
believed  possible.     But  my  imagination  died  at  Saint  Jean  dAcre." 

Bourrienne  tells  us  how  Napoleon  had  formed  gigantic  plans,  which,  walking 
every  evening  in  the  open,  he  confided  to  his  secretary. 

"  Bourrienne,"  said  he  on  the  9th  May,  "  I  see  that  this  wretched  place  has 
cost  me  a  number  of  men,  and  wasted  much  time.  But  things  are  too  far 
advanced  for  me  not  to  make  a  last  effort.  If  I  succeed,  as  I  expect,  I  shall 
find  in  the  town  the  Pasha's  treasures,  and  arms  for  30,000  men.  1  will  stir  up 
and  arm  the  people  of  Syria.  I  shall  march  upon  Damascus  and  Aleppo.  On 
advancing  into  the  country,  the  discontented  will  fly  to  my  standard,  and  swell 
my  army.  I  will  announce  to  the  people  the  abolition  of  servitude,  and  of  the 
tyrannical  government  of  the  Pashas.  I  shall  arrive  at  Constantinople  with 
large  masses  of  soldiers.  I  shall  overturn  the  Turkish  Empire,  and  found  in 
the  East  a  new  and  grand  Empire,  which  will  fix  my  place  in  the  records  of 
posterity.  Perhaps  I  shall  return  to  Paris  by  Adrianople,  or  by  Vienna,  after 
having  annihilated  the  house  of  Austria," 

Bourrienne  adds : — "  As  soon  as  I  returned  to  my  tent,  I  committed  to 
paper  this  conversation,  which  was  then  quite  fresh  in  my  memory,  and  I  may 
venture  to  say  that  every  word  I  put  down  is  correct." 

Napoleon  had  always  disliked  the  English,  but  we  may  attribute  to  this 
date  the  implacable,  the  ravening  hatred  of  the  British  which  took  possession 
of  his  heart.  P'or  it  was  emphatically  England  which  had  stood  in  his  way, 
and  prevented  him  from  accomplishing  that  object  on  which  his  mind  had 
been  set  from  boyhood. 

The  condition  of  affairs  in  his  army  now  left  him  no  alternative  but  to 
abandon  the  siege  and  withdraw. 

On  the  17th  May,  retreat  was  decided  on,  and  a  long  train  of  the  wounded 
and  sick  took  the  lead  for  Jaffa,  on  the  way  to  Lower  Egypt. 

Bitter  though  the  disappointment  was  to  Bonaparte,  humiliating  to  his 
pride,  yet  he  was  not  the  man  to  acknowledge  the  check  he  had  received.  In 
his  bulletins,  in  his  reports  to  the  Directory,  in  his  letters  to  the  generals  left  in 
Egypt,  even  in  his  proclamation  to  the  discomfited  and  retreating  troops,  he 
assumed  the  tone  of  a  victor. 

To  the  Directory  he  wrote : — "  The  season  is  too  far  advanced  ;  the  end  I 
had  in  view  has  been  accomplished  (! !).  My  presence  is  required  in  Egypt.  I 
placed  a  battery  of  twenty-four  guns  so  as  to  destroy  the  palace  of  Djezzar, 
and  the  principal  monuments  in  the  town.  .  .  .  Having  reduced  Acre  to  a  heap 
of  stones,  I  shall  recross  the  desert,  so  as  to  be  ready  to  receive  any  Turkish  or 
European  army  which  may  attempt  to  land.  .  .  .  Since  crossing  the  desert  I 
have  lost  500  men  killed,  and  1000  wounded.     The  enemy  has  lost  15,000." 


SYRIA  191 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  this  despatch  contains  a  string  of  false- 
hoods. 

To  the  troops  he  announced  : — "  A  few  days  more  and  you  would  have 
captured  the  Pasha  in  the  very  middle  of  his  palace  ;  but  at  this  season,  the 
capture  of  Acre  would  not  be  worth  the  loss  of  some  days,  besides,  the  gallant 
fellows  who  would  have  perished  are  wanted  for  more  essential  operations." 

General  Dommartin  was  ordered  to  throw  some  of  his  guns  into  the  sea  at 
dead  of  night.  Junot  was  ordered  to  burn  all  the  mills  on  the  river  Jordan, 
and  to  sell  or  destroy  all  the  corn. 

To  the  Divan  at  Cairo  he  announced  that  he  had  levelled  the  palace  of 
Djezzar  with  the  dust ;  that  the  Pasha  was  grievously  wounded ;  that  the 
inhabitants  of  the  town  had  fled  to  the  ships ;  and  so  on. 

Bourrienne,  his  secretary,  admits  that  he  blushed  to  have  to  write  such 
falsehoods,  and  ventured  to  remonstrate  with  Napoleon,  who  answered  him, 
"  My  dear  fellow,  you  are  a  simpleton  ;  you  do  not  understand  business." 

The  treatment  of  the  country  through  which  the  army  retreated  was  only 
justifiable  on  the  supposition  that  pursuit  was  likely.  The  miseries  inflicted  on 
the  country  and  on  the  troops  are  graphically  described  by  Bourrienne. 

"  A  most  intolerable  thirst,  the  total  want  of  water,  an  excessive  heat,  and 
a  fatiguing  march  over  burning  sandhills  quite  disheartened  the  men,  and  made 
every  generous  sentiment  give  way  to  feelings  of  the  grossest  selfishness  and 
most  shocking  indifference.  I  saw  officers,  with  their  limbs  amputated,  thrown 
off  litters,  whose  removal  in  that  way  had  been  ordered,  and  who  had  them- 
selves given  money  to  recompense  the  bearers.  I  saw  the  amputated,  the 
wounded,  the  infected — or  those  only  suspected  of  infection — deserted  and  left 
to  themselves.  The  march  was  illumined  by  torches,  employed  for  setting  fire 
to  the  little  towns,  villages,  and  hamlets  which  lay  in  the  route,  and  the  rich 
crops  with  which  the  land  was  then  covered.  The  whole  country  was  in  a 
blaze.  Those  who  were  ordered  to  preside  at  this  work  of  destruction  seemed 
eager  to  spread  desolation  on  every  side,  as  if  they  could  thereby  avenge 
themselves  for  their  reverses,  and  find  in  such  dreadful  havoc  an  alleviation  of 
their  sufferings.  We  were  constantly  surrounded  by  plunderers,  incendiaries, 
and  the  dying,  who,  stretched  on  the  sides  of  the  road,  implored  assistance  in  a 
feeble  voice,  saying,  '  I  am  not  infected,  I  am  only  wounded ' ;  and  to  convince 
those  whom  they  addressed,  they  reopened  their  old  wounds,  or  inflicted  on 
themselves  fresh  ones.  Still  nobody  attended  to  them.  The  sun,  which  shone 
in  an  unclouded  sky  in  all  its  brightness,  was  often  darkened  by  our  conflagra- 
tions. On  our  right  lay  the  sea  ;  on  our  left,  and  behind  us,  the  desert  made 
by  ourselves ;  before  were  the  privations  and  sufferings  which  awaited  us. 
Such  was  our  true  position." 

Tentoura  was  reached  on  the  20th  May.  The  condition  of  affairs  was  so 
bad,  the  number  of  sick  so  great,  that  Bonaparte  gave  orders  that  all  the  horses 
and  mules  should  be  given  up  to  the  wounded  and  the  sick.  "  Scarcely  had  I 
returned"  (from  giving  this  order),  says  Bourrienne,  "when  Vigogne,  the 
General-in-Chiefs  groom,  entered,  and,  raising  his  hand  to  his  cap,  said, 
*  General,  what  horse  do  you  reserve  for  yourself?'" 

In  the  state  of  excitement  in  which  Bonaparte  was,  this  question  irritated 


192         THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

him  so  violently  that,  raising  his  whip,  he  gave  the  man  a  severe  blow  on  the 
head  (Lavallette  says  across  the  body),  saying  in  a  terrible  voice,  "  Everyone 
must  go  on  foot,  you  rascal — I  the  first !  Do  you  not  know  the  order  ?  Be  off." 
At  this  place  the  remains  of  the  heavy  artillery  were  lost  in  the  sands.  Jaffa 
was  entered  on  the  24th  of  May,  and  there  the  dispirited  army  rested  till 
the  28th. 

The  fortifications  were  blown  up,  and  then  it  was  deliberated  what  was  to 
be  done  with  the  sick,  above  all,  those  infected  with  the  plague.  Two  stories 
are  told  relative  to  the  hospital  at  Jaffa  ;  one  by  those  who  have  laboured  in  the 
canonization  of  Napoleon,  the  other,  by  his  detractors.  It  will  be  well  to  take 
the  latter  first. 

On  the  arrangements  being  settled  for  departure  from  Jaffa,  provision  was 
made  for  the  removal  of  the  wounded.  But  it  was  doubtful  what  should  be 
done  with  those  stricken  with  the  plague.  Recovery  from  this  frightful  malady 
was  almost  impossible.     A  few  hours,  and  death  relieved  the  sufferers.     More- 


SABRE   WORN    BY    BONAPARTE    DURING    THE    EGYPTIAN    CAMPAIGN. 
From  the  collection  of  Prince  Victor. 

^over,  contact  with  the  plague-patients  was  believed  almost  certainly  to  convey 
infection.     For  this  reason,  no  one  cared  to  touch  the  latter ;    and  when  the 

(horses  were  surrendered  to  the  sick,  the  officers  stipulated  that  none  sick  of  this 
disorder  should  be  placed  on  their  saddles.     The  story  goes  that  Napoleon 

,  ordered  all  the  plague-patients  to  be  given  opium,  to  hasten  their  death.  This 
has  been  regarded  as  a  monstrous  crime,  and  the  number  of  those  thus  poisoned 
has  been  exaggerated.     Now  the  facts  seem  to  have  been  these.     Under  the 

.  circumstances,  knowing  that  the  Turks  were  in  pursuit,  the  suggestion  of  opium 
being  administered  was  raised. 

Bourrienne  says  that  near  Mount  Carmel,  three  soldiers,  who  had  been  left 
behind,  sick  of  the  plague,  in  a  convent,  had  been  put  to  death,  with  savage  in- 
humanity, by  the  Turks.  It  was  therefore  certain  that  those  abandoned  in  the 
hospital  would  be  similarly  treated.  The  Turks,  the  natives,  were  maddened  to 
fury  by  the  destruction  wrought  on  the  towns  and  harvests.  No  mercy  was  to 
be  expected  from  them.  It  would  therefore  have  been  not  only  justifiable,  but 
a  real  mercy,  to  accelerate  by  opium  the  death  of  the  patients.  But  a  difficulty 
presented  itself  The  apothecary  appointed  to  bring  stores  of  drugs  with  the 
3.rmy,  instead  of  doing  so,  had  laden  his  camels  with  goods — dainties,  which  he 

^designed  selling  to  the  soldiers  and  officers,  and  thereby  reaping  to  himself  a 


SYRIA  193 

large  profit.  Consequently,  there  was  not  opium  for  the  purpose  to  be  had,  and 
the  purpose  of  administering  it  was  frustrated.  However,  the  very  fact  of  the 
mooting  of  this  project  sufficed  to  set  the  story  rolling,  and  to  convert  the 
suggestion  into  an  accomplished  fact.  According  to  the  account  circulated  in 
Europe,  500  sick  soldiers  were  removed  by  opium.  Actually  there  were  not  so 
many  plague-patients  in  hospital,  though  there  were  certainly  more  than 
Napoleon  pretended  at  S.  Helena,  when  he  said  that  there  were  only  seven. 
What  is  certain  is  that  when  Sir  Sidney  Smith  arrived,  after  the  evacuation 
of  Jaffa,  he  found  some  of  the  sick  of  the  plague  still  alive.  We  may 
fairly  conclude  that,  had  Napoleon  ordered  the  administration  of  opium, 
he  would  have  been  justified  in  so  doing,  but  that  actually  no  such  order 
was  given. 

The  other  story  is  to  this  effect.  It  is  due  to  Savary  (Due  de  Rovigo),  who, 
it  must  be  remembered,  was  not  in  the  Syrian  campaign,  but  was  at  the  time 
aide-de-camp  to  Dessaix  in  Egypt,  and  his  account  is  due  either  to  hearsay  or  to 
imagination. 

He  says,  "  The  hospital  contained  many  soldiers  who  were  in  a  state  border- 
ing upon  madness,  much  more  owing  to  the  terror  which  the  malady  inspired 
than  to  the  intensity  of  the  pain.  General  Bonaparte  determined  to  restore  them 
to  their  proper  energy.  He  paid  them  a  visit,  reproached  them  for  giving  way 
to  dejection,  and  yielding  to  chimerical  fears ;  and  in  order  to  convince  them, 
by  the  most  obvious  proof,  that  their  apprehensions  were  groundless,  he  desired 
that  the  bleeding  tumour  of  one  of  the  soldiers  should  be  uncovered  before  him, 
and  pressed  it  with  his  own  hand.  This  act  of  heroism  restored  confidence  to 
the  sick,  who  no  longer  thought  their  case  desperate.  Each  recruited  his 
remaining  strength,  and  prepared  to  quit  a  place  which,  but  a  moment  before, 
he  had  expected  never  to  leave.  A  grenadier,  upon  whom  the  plague  had 
made  greater  ravages,  could  hardly  raise  himself  in  bed.  The  General,  perceiv- 
ing this,  addressed  him  in  a  few  encouraging  words.  '  You  are  right,  General,' 
replied  the  warrior, '  your  grenadiers  are  not  made  to  die  in  a  hospital.'  Affected 
at  the  courage  displayed  by  these  unfortunate  men,  who  were  exhausted  by 
uneasiness  of  mind  no  less  than  by  the  complaint,  General  Bonaparte  would  not 
quit  them  until  he  saw  them  all  placed  upon  camels,  and  other  means  of  trans- 
port at  the  disposal  of  the  army." 

Then  follows  the  story  of  the  order  for  all  to  surrender  their  horses,  and  of 
his  groom,  against  whom,  according  to  Savary,  he  merely  "  dashed  a  threaten- 
ing look." 

Now  the  writer's  narrative  cannot  be  trusted.  In  the  first  place,  he  was  not 
present.  In  the  next,  he  is  quite  wrong  in  saying  that  all  the  plague-patients 
were  removed ;  they  were  left  in  the  lazaretto,  and  there  found  by  Sir  Sidney 
Smith  dead  and  lingering.  And,  thirdly,  the  order  for  the  horses  to  be  employed 
was  given  on  the  way  between  Acre  and  Jaffa.  From  Jaffa  the  wounded  were 
despatched  in  ships,  or  carried  in  litters  with  the  army.  But  what  tells  still 
more  heavily  against  Savary's  story  is  that  it  is  uncorroborated  by  Lavallette, 
who  was  aide-de-camp  with  Bonaparte  at  the  time,  and  is  contradicted  by  the 
account  of  Bourrienne,  an  eye-witness  of  the  whole  transaction, 
o 


194        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Lavallette  does  not  say  that  Bonaparte  went  into  the  hospital  at  all.  He 
was  himself  sent  by  the  General-in-Chief  to  visit  this  lazaretto,  and  report  on 
the  condition  of  the  men  there  : — 

"  I  found  five  or  six  soldiers  lying  beneath  the  trees  ;  when  they  saw  me,  they 
cried  out, '  Pray,  commander,  take  us  with  you.  We  are  still  able  to  bear  the 
march.'  But  all  symptoms  of  the  plague  were  already  evident.  Not  one  of 
them  could  rise,  and  I  was  obliged  to  leave  them,  for  no  soldier  would  have  lent 
them  his  aid.  I  went  and  made  my  report  to  General  Bonaparte,  who  was 
walking  on  the  sea-shore.  He  listened  to  me  without  stopping ;  and  then  we 
came  on  a  young  cavalry  soldier,  who  also  asked  to  be  taken  with  us,  and  who 
succeeded  in  rising  from  the  ground.  The  General,  touched  with  compassion, 
ordered  one  of  his  guides  to  give  his  horse  to  the  sick  man.  But  neither  the 
authority  of  the  General,  nor  the  fear  of  punishment,  was  sufficient  to  enforce 
obedience.  ...  As  for  the  poor  soldiers  I  mentioned,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  they 
died  in  the  course  of  the  night,  so  as  to  have  escaped  the  cruel  death  the  Arabs 
prepared  for  all  who  fell  into  their  hands." 

Bourrienne's  account  is  this :  "  Bonaparte  walked  quickly  through  the 
rooms,  tapping  the  yellow  top  of  his  boot  with  a  whip  he  held  in  his  hand.  As 
he  passed  along  with  hasty  steps,  he  repeated  these  words  :  '  The  fortifications 
are  destroyed.  Fortune  was  against  me  at  S.  Jean  d'Acre.  I  must  return  to 
Egypt  to  preserve  it  from  the  enemy,  who  will  soon  be  there.  In  a  few  hours 
the  Turks  will  be  here.  Let  those  who  have  strength  enough  rise,  and  come 
along  with  us.     They  shall  be  carried  on  litters  and  horses.' " 

There  were  scarcely  sixty  cases  of  plague  in  the  hospital ;  and  accounts 
giving  a  greater  number  are  exaggerated.  The  perfect  silence,  complete  dejec- 
tion, and  general  stupor  of  the  patients  announced  their  approaching  end.  To 
carry  them  away  in  the  state  in  which  they  were,  would  evidently  have  been 
the  inoculation  of  the  rest  of  the  army  with  the  plague. 

The  army  continued  its  retreat,  burdened  with  1800  sick,  borne  in  litters. 
In  the  official  account  written  by  Berthier,  at  the  dictation  of  the  Commander- 
in-Chief,  it  is  stated  :  "  The  wounded  were  removed  by  sea  and  by  land." 
Bourrienne  repudiates  the  story  as  told  by  Savary.  It  may  be  remarked  that 
mot  a  word  is  said  in  the  official  record  about  the  infected,  not  a  word  of  the 
visit  to  the  hospital,  or  the  touching  of  the  plague-patients  with  impunity.  In 
no  official  report  is  anything  said  about  the  matter.  Why  this  silence  .-*  Bona- 
parte was  not  the  man  to  conceal  a  fact  which  would  have  afforded  him  so 
■excellent  and  so  allowable  a  text  for  talking  about  his  fortune.  The  story, 
accordingly,  of  Bonaparte  in  the  hospital  encouraging  the  soldiers,  touching 
their  sores,  as  told  by  Savary,  is  as  purely  mythical  as  that  of  his  having 
poisoned  five  hundred  patients  with  opium.  Nevertheless,  it  has  proved  a 
favourite  subject  for  artists. 

The  little  army  arrived  at  Cairo  on  the  14th  June,  after  a  harassing  march 
of  twenty-five  days.  "  Bonaparte  preceded  his  entry  into  the  capital  of  Egypt, 
•by  one  of  those  lying  bulletins  which  only  imposed  on  fools"  (Bourrienne).  He 
entered  it  in  triumph,  making  great  display  of  prisoners  taken,  and  of  stan- 
dards captured."    Having  heard  that  the  Turks  had  concluded  an  alliance  with 


SYRIA  195 

the  Russians,  he  issued  the  following  proclamation  to  the  Divan  at  Cairo,  on 
the  2 1st  July  : — 

"  There  is  no  other  God  but  God,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet. 

"  To  the  Divan  of  Cairo.  .  .  .  May  the  grace  of  the  Prophet  be  on  you  ! 

"  I  write  to  inform  you  that  .  .  .  eighty  vessels  have  presented  themselves 
before  Alexandria,  but  having  been  warmly  received  have  anchored  at  Aboukir, 
and  are  disembarking  troops.  My  intention  is,  when  they  are  all  disembarked, 
to  attack  them,  to  kill  all  who  refuse  to  surrender,  and  to  grant  the  rest  life  in 
order  to  bring  them  here  as  prisoners,  which  will  be  a  fine  sight  for  Cairo. 

"  Those  who  brought  this  fleet  here  hoped  to  join  the  Arabs  and  Mamelukes 
in  pillaging  and  devastating  Egypt,  There  are  on  board  this  fleet  Russians 
who  hold  in  horror  those  who  believe  in  the  unity  of  God,  because,  according  to 
their  lies,  they  believe  in  three  gods.  But  they  will  soon  perceive  that  the  number 
of  gods  does  not  constitute  force,  and  that  there  is  only  one,  the  Father  of 
Victory,  clement  and  merciful,  always  fighting  for  the  good,  and  confounding 
the  machinations  of  the  wicked  ;  and  He,  in  His  wisdom,  decided  that  I  should 
come  to  Egypt  to  change  the  state  of  affairs,  and  to  substitute  a  regime  of  order 
and  justice  for  one  of  devastation.  In  thus  acting.  He  gives  a  proof  of  His 
omnipotence,  for  what  those  who  believe  in  the  Trinity  were  never  able  to 
accomplish,  that  we  have  done,  who  believe  that  a  single  God  governs  the 
world." 

There  would  be  something  ludicrous,  if  it  were  not  revolting,  in  the  manner 
in  which  Napoleon  posed  as  a  good  Mussulman  in  Egypt,  and  yet  hoped,  in 
Syria,  to  rally  around  him  all  Christians  against  the  crescent.  Not  less  dis- 
agreeable is  it  to  compare  the  laudation  of  his  clemency  with  his  actual  conduct 
in  murdering,  burning,  carrying  away  children,  and  indiscriminate  plundering. 

It  was  a  fact  that  the  Turkish  army  that  had  been  collected  at  Rhodes  had 
disembarked  at  Aboukir.  Napoleon  now  hastened  to  meet  it,  and  with  his 
usual  ability,  by  a  determined  onslaught,  utterly  crushed  and  annihilated  the 
host  of  18,000  men  who  had  landed  ;  10,000  perished  by  shot,  bayonet,  and  in 
the  sea,  into  which  they  threw  themselves  in  the  hopes  of  reaching  their  ships. 

Satisfactory  as  was  this  result,  it  was  doubly  so  in  that  it  was  obtained  at 
Aboukir,  and  Bonaparte  might  flatter  himself  that  by  his  success  there,  he  had 
wiped  out  the  stain  of  the  destruction  of  the  French  fleet  by  Nelson. 

Napoleon  had  now  at  last  received  news  of  what  had  taken  place  in  Europe. 
For  months  nearly  all  communication  had  been  cut  off  between  France  and  the 
Army  of  Egypt,  by  the  activity  of  the  English  cruisers.  But  in  the  interim 
stormy  events  had  occurred. 

England  had  managed  to  form  a  second  coalition,  into  which  all  the  powers, 
with  the  exception  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  had  entered.  Austria  had  her  past 
humiliation  to  retrieve,  Germany  desired  to  recover  the  Rhenish  German- 
speaking  provinces.  Russia,  as  well,  had  entered  into  the  alliance,  and  pro- 
mised to  send  60,000  men  to  act  with  the  Austrians.  The  invasion  of  Rome 
and  Switzerland  h^d  excited  widespread  indignation.  The  Ionian  Islands  had 
been  snatched  from  France.  In  March,  1799,  Jourdan  was  defeated  and  driven 
over  the  Rhine  by  the  Archduke  Charles;  and  the  Austrian  generals,  Belle- 
garde  and  Hotze,  had  thrown  the  French  across  the  S.  Gothard,  and  poured 


196 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


into  Switzerland.  Scherer,  in  Upper  Italy,  had  been  forced  to  retreat  behind 
the  Mincio  ;  he  was  replaced  by  Moreau,  who  was  also  defeated.  In  the 
Cisalpine  Republic  the  people  had  risen  in  insurrection  against  the  French. 
Suwarrow  invested  Mantua,  took  Brescia  and  Peschiera,  and  entered  Milan.  In 
June,  Macdonald  was  defeated  in  the  stubbornly-fought  battle  of  Trebia,  with  a 
loss  of  12,000  men.  In  August,  Joubert,  who  had  succeeded  Moreau  and 
Macdonald,  was  beaten  on  the  field  of  Novi  by  Suwarrow,  and  was  himself 
slain. 

In  Holland,  Sir  Ralph  Abercromby  had  captured  the  Dutch  fleet. 


FRANCE   RECALLING   BONAPARTE   FROM   EGYPT. 
After  Appiani. 


Massena  held  his  own  in  Switzerland.  The  conscription  had  been  raised 
throughout  France.  A  driblet  only  of  news  had  come  to  Napoleon  from 
France ;  now  the  worst  tidings  were  fully  confirmed.  He  hesitated  not  a 
moment.  His  presence  in  France  could  alone  enable  him  to  secure  his  supre- 
macy, and  the  present  was  the  suitable  moment,  when  the  arms  of  the  Republic 
were  meeting  with  disaster,  and  he  was  wearing  the  fresh  laurels  won  at 
Aboukir.  He  trusted,  moreover,  by  his  presence,  and  with  his  address,  to  be 
able  to  dispel  any  unfavourable  rumours  that  might  circulate  relative  to  the 
reverses  in  Syria. 

With  his  usual  dissimulation,  he  gave  out  that  he  was  going  on  an  expedi- 
tion to  examine  the  Delta  of  the  Nile,  while  he  was  making  secret  preparations 
for  crossing  to  France.  To  Kleber  was  committed  the  command  of  the 
remainder  of  the  Army  of  Egypt.     No  more  glory  was  to  be  gained  there.     It 


SYRIA  197 

•would  be  hard,  without  fresh  troops  and  supplies,  to  hold  the  ground  already 
won.  He  authorised  Kleber  to  treat  with  the  Porte  for  the  evacuation,  "  should 
he  lose  fifteen  hundred  men  with  plague." 

Kleber  was  most  indignant.  "  I  am  ignorant,"  he  said  to  him,  "  what  pro- 
jects you  meditate,  but  you  are  not  calm  as  usual.  I  do  not  seek  to  penetrate 
your  design.  I  must,  however,  flatter  myself  that  it  is  not  your  intention  to 
abandon  the  remnant  of  an  army  which  you  alone  have  brought  hither." 

"  One  would  suppose,  according  to  what  you  say,"  replied  Bonaparte,  "  that 
I  was  the  sole  author  of  this  expedition ;  you  do  more,  you  seem  to  lay  to  my 
charge  the  misfortunes  that  have  befallen  our  army." 

"  I  know  you  too  well  not  to  believe  that  you  are  the  author  of  the  project," 
replied  Kleber, "  and  I  am  too  sincere  not  to  avow  my  opinion.  As  to  accusing 
you  alone,  I  do  not  forget  that  the  Directory  was  to  blame  in  having,  with  so 
much  facility,  furnished  you  with  the  means  of  carrying  it  into  execution." 

The  General-in-Chief  quitted  him,  purple  with  anger.* 

From  Alexandria,  on  the  22nd  August,  he  wrote  to  Kleber :  "  The  General 
Kleber  is  ordered  to  assume  the  command-in-chief  of  the  Army  of  the  East, 
the  Government  having  summoned  me  home  " — an  untruth.  In  a  proclamation 
to  the  Divan,  at  Cairo,  he  announced  his  departure  "  to  place  himself  at  the 
head  of  his  squadron,"  and  promised  to  be  back  in  two  or  three  months. 

In  a  couple  of  Venetian  frigates  he  departed  along  with  his  staff — Lannes, 
Murat,  Berthier,  Marmont,  Andreossy,  Duroc,  Bessieres,  Lavallette — men  on 
whom  he  could  implicitly  rely  for  assistance  in  that  which  he  meditated.  It 
was  high  time  for  him  to  return  to  France,  and  upset  the  Directory,  before 
France  had  come  to  know  how  great  had  been  his  failure  in  Egypt. 

Napoleon  arrived  at  Frejus  on  October  the  8th,  after  having  interrupted  his 
voyage  for  a  few  days  at  Ajaccio. 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  it  may  be  suitable  to  say  a  few  words  relative 
to  the  feeling  of  Bonaparte  towards  human  misery,  and  the  shedding  of 
blood. 

Cruel  he  never  was,  but  callous.  In  dealing  with  men,  or  peoples  en  masse, 
he  showed  indifference  to  the  suffering  he  caused,  and  the  lives  he  sacrified. 
But  when  brought  face  to  face  with  individuals  in  anguish  and  menaced  with 
death,  he  was  amenable  to  lively  sentiments  of  pity.  I  have  seen  persons  who 
could  look  on  with  hardly  any  sensation  of  horror  at  a  shipwreck,  when  they  were 
on  a  cliff,  and  those  perishing  were  visible  only  as  specks  ;  yet  these  same  would 
be  in  the  utmost  agitation  and  qualms  of  compassion  when  a  poodle  was 
drowning.  It  was  something  like  this  with  Napoleon.  His  humanity  depended 
on  the  point  of  view  from  which  he  contemplated  the  event.  In  Egypt,  in  Syria, 
lives  were  sacrificed  with  the  utmost  disregard,  and  devastation  was  carried  on 
with  wantonness.  Yet  he  was  capable  of  doing  kind  things,  and  of  interference 
to  save  lives.  When  he  reached  Toulon,  on  his  way  to  Egypt,  he  heard  that  the 
law  for  the  execution  of  returned  emigres  was  being  enforced  with  rigour ;  and 
that  recently  an  old  man,  upwards  of  eighty,  had  been  shot.     Indignant  at  this 

*  Secret  Memoirs,  p.  13. 


198        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

barbarity,  he  dictated  the  following  letter  to  the  Commissioners  who  were  there 
directing  these  executions  : — 

"  I  have  heard  with  deep  regret  that  an  old  man,  between  seventy  and  eighty 
years  of  age,  and  some  unfortunate  women,  in  a  state  of  pregnancy,  or  sur- 
rounded with  children  of  tender  age,  have  been  shot  on  the  charge  of  emigration. 

"  Have  the  soldiers  of  liberty  become  executioners  ?  Can  the  mercy  which 
they  have  exercised  even  in  the  field  of  battle  be  extinct  in  their  breasts? 

"  The  law  of  the  19th  Fructidor  was  a  measure  of  public  safety.  Its  object 
was  to  reach  conspirators,  not  women  and  aged  men. 

"  I  therefore  exhort  you,  citizens,  whenever  the  law  brings  to  your  tribunals 
women  and  old  men,  to  declare  that  in  the  field  of  battle  you  have  respected 
the  women  and  old  men  of  your  enemies.  The  officer  who  signs  a  sentence 
against  a  person  incapable  of  bearing  arms  is  a  coward." 

Nevertheless,  but  a  few  months  later  we  find  him  treating  the  Egyptian 
villagers,  who  were  suspected  of  being  in  revolt,  with  like  barbarity;  executing 
old  and  young,  carrying  off  children,  and  having  the  heads  of  women  struck  off 
as  well  as  those  of  men. 

One  day,  when  a  boy  of  fourteen,  some  one  was  making  a  panegyric  upon 
the  Vicomte  de  Turenne,  when  the  young  Corsican  was  present.  A  lady  in 
company  observed,  "  Yes,  he  may  have  been  a  great  man  ;  but  I  should  have 
admired  him  more  if  he  had  not  laid  the  Palatinate  waste  with  fire  and  sword." 

"  What  did  that  matter,"  answered  Bonaparte  eagerly,  "  if  it  was  necessary 
to  his  glory  ?  "  * 

This  answer,  at  an  early  age,  gives  us  the  clue  to  his  feelings  in  the  matter  of 
humanity.  He  could  be  pitiful  and  merciful,  where  his  own  interests  were  not 
concerned.  He  could  condemn  in  others  what  he  allowed  himself.  The 
standard  by  which  all  was  judged,  as  admirable  or  not,  was  a  selfish  one. 
Everything  was  justified  which  concerned  the  carrying  out  of  that  which 
he  willed. 

*  Secret  Memoirs  of  N.  B.^  \%i^. 


M 


XXVII 
THE    I  8th    BRUMAIRE 

(October  i6 — November  io,  1799) 

ADAME  JUNOT,  in  her  Memoirs,  gives  us  a  graphic  picture  of  the  re- 
ception in  the  Permon  family  of  the  nevi^s  of  the  landing  of  Napoleon  : — 

"  On  the  evening  of  the  9th  October  my  mother  had  a  few  friends  v^ith  her. 
We  were  all  seated  at  a  large  round  table  playing  at  loto-dauphin,  a  game 
of  which  my  mother  was  very  fond.  Suddenly  a  cabriolet  drove  up  to  the 
door,  a  young  gentleman  jumped  out  of  it,  and  in  a  minute  was  at  the  top  of 
the  staircase.     It  was  my  brother  Albert. 

"  '  Guess  what  news  I  bring  ?  '  said  he.  As  we  were  all  in  high  spirits,  and 
his  countenance  bespoke  him  to  be  so  too,  all  sorts  of  absurd  guesses  were 
made,  at  which  Albert  repeatedly  shook  his  head.  '  Nonsense ! '  said  my 
mother,  taking  up  the  bag  containing  the  little  balls.  '  If  there  were  a  change  in 
the  Government  of  the  Republic  you  could  not  make  it  a  matter  of  greater  im- 
portance.' '  Well,  mother,'  replied  Albert  seriously,  '  what  you  say  now  in  jest 
may  possibly  be  realised.     Bonaparte  is  in  France  ! ' 

"  When  my  brother  uttered  these  last  words  the  whole  party  seemed  struck 
motionless,  as  if  by  a  magic  wand.  My  mother,  who  had  just  drawn  a  ball  out 
of  the  bag,  held  her  little  hand  raised  in  the  air,  and,  the  bag  having  fallen  down, 
the  balls  were  rolling  about  the  carpet  in  every  direction,  without  exciting  the 
notice  of  anybody.     Everyone  sat  as  if  petrified." 

It  was  the  same  with  the  Directory.  They  let  fall  the  orb  of  government. 
All  France  held  its  breath,  conscious  that  a  moment  of  complete  change,  an 
epoch  in  the  destiny  of  France,  was  heralded  by  the  landing  of  Napoleon 
at  Frejus. 

Bonaparte  at  once  sent  a  courier  to  announce  his  having  set  foot  on  French 
soil,  and  his  approaching  entry  into  Paris.  Then,  lest  an  attempt  should 
be  made  to  stay  him,  he  altered  his  indicated  course,  and  came  by  a  way 
unexpected. 

Paris  was  swarming  with  plots  and  conspiracies.  France  was  in  revolt 
against  the  Directory,  impatient  at  the  endless  revolutions — eight  in  seven 
years ;  and  it  cried  out  for  another,  which  might  give  rest  to  a  wearied  land. 

The  elections  of  May,  1799,  had  been  against  the  Government.  With 
almost  one  voice,  France  had  imputed  the  disasters  of  the  preceding  year  to 
the  mismanagement  of  the  Directory.      They  had    banished   the  only  great 

199 


200        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

General  they  had,  because  jealous  of  him,  in  the  hopes  that  the  desert  or  the 
plague  would  relieve  them  of  him  for  ever. 

The  Councils  of  Five  Hundred  and  of  the  Ancients  found,  to  their  delight, 
that  their  silent  opposition  was  now  so  strengthened  by  the  accession  of  such  a 
majority  as  enabled  them  to  act  and  to  speak  ;  but  they  were  in  no  degree  in 
favour  of  a  military  coup  d'etat. 

The  first  step  taken  by  the  Opposition  was  to  replace  Rewbell  by  Sieyes ; 
Treilhard,  Merlin,  and  Lareveillere-Lepeaux  by  Gohier,  Moulin,  and  Roger- 
Ducos,  men  of  no  ability,  but  of  some  integrity.  Bernadotte  was  appointed 
Minister  of  War. 

Meanwhile  the  Jacobins  had  raised  their  head,  and  looked  for  a  return  to 
the  principles  of  Robespierre.  They  formed  themselves  into  a  club,  which  met 
at  the  Manege.  They  could  reckon  on  two  generals,  Jourdan  and  Augereau. 
The  Moderates  leaned  on  Bernadotte  and  Moreau.  Sieyes  and  Barras  had 
founded  great  hopes  on  Joubert,  and  had  sent  him  into  Italy,  to  acquire  there 
the  necessary  amount  of  laurels,  but  he  had  fallen  at  Novi. 

When  Sieyes  heard  of  the  landing  of  Napoleon,  he  threatened  to  have  him 
shot  as  a  deserter ;  but  he  stood  alone.  The  Directory  was  itself  a  prey  to 
party  feeling. 

Barras — who,  in  the  crust  of  general  mediocrity  which  had  formed  over  the 
simmering  pot,  had  maintained  some  sort  of  supremacy — had  now  forfeited  the 
last  remnants  of  respect. 

Gohier  was  a  dull,  honest  man,  and  Moulin  a  general  without  influence  over 
the  soldiers. 

Sieyes,  with  a  new  Constitution  in  his  pocket,  was  impatient  to  upset  that  o/ 
the  year  III.,  that  he  might  air  his  plan  of  political  organization. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  affairs  in  Paris  when  the  news  arrived  that 
Napoleon  had  landed  at  Frejus. 

The  Directory  was  aghast.     They  consulted,  quarrelled,  and  parted. 

Napoleon's  journey  through  France  was  one  long  triumphal  progress. 

"  All  along  the  road,"  says  Bourrienne,  ''  at  Aix,  at  Lyons,  in  every  town 
and  village,  he  was  jreceived  as  at  Frejus,  with  the  most  rapturous  demonstra- 
tions of  joy.  Only  those  who  witnessed  his  triumphal  journey  can  form  any 
notion  of  it ;  and  it  required  no  great  discernment  to  foresee  something  like  the 
1 8th  Brumaire. 

"The  provinces,  a  prey  to  anarchy  and  civil  war,  were  continually  threatened 
with  foreign  invasion.  Almost  all  the  south  presented  the  melancholy  spectacle 
of  one  vast  arena  of  conflicting  factions.  The  nation  groaned  beneath  the 
yoke  of  tyrannical  laws  ;  despotism  was  systematically  established  ;  the  law  of 
hostages  struck  a  blow  at  personal  liberty,  and  forced  loans  menaced  every 
man's  property.  The  generality  of  citizens  had  declared  themselves  against  a 
plutarchy  devoid  of  power,  justice,  and  morality,  and  which  had  become  the 
sport  of  faction.  Disorder  was  general ;  but  in  the  provinces  abuses  were  felt 
more  sensibly  than  elsewhere.  In  great  cities  it  was  found  easier  to  elude  the 
hand  of  despotism  and  oppression. 

"A  change  so  earnestly  desired  could  not  fail  to  be  realised,  and  to  be  received 
with  transport.     The  majority  of  the  French  people  longed  to  be  relieved  from 


THE    i8th    BRUMAIRE 


20I 


the  situation  in  which  they  stood.  There  were  two  dangers  to  cope  with — 
anarchy  and  the  Bourbons.  Everyone  felt  the  urgent  and  indispensable 
necessity  of  concentrating  the  power  of  the  Government  in  a  single  hand  ;  at 
the  same  time  maintaining  those  institutions  which  the  spirit  of  the  age 
demanded,  and  which  had  been  so  dearly  purchased,  and  which  France  seemed 
now  about  to  lose.  The  country  looked  for  a  man  who  was  capable  of  restoring 
her  to  tranquillity ;  but  as  yet  no  such  man  had  appeared." 


Sieyes,  who  saw  that  it  was 
absolutely  impossible  to  avoid 
another  Revolution,  and  was 
anxious  to  preserve  France 
from  again  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  Jacobins,  and 
equally  desirous  of  delivering 
it  from  the  Bourbons,  applied 
to  Bernadotte  and  to  General 
Marbot  to  aid  him,  but  met 
with  no  satisfactory  response, 
whereupon  Marbot  was  re- 
lieved of  the  command  of  the 
17th  Division  in  Paris,  and 
ordered  to  depart  for  Italy. 

I  may  be  allowed  here  to 
repeat  what  has  already  been 
said  relative  to  the  weariness 
with  which  France  regarded 
the  Republic,  and  the  desire 
she  entertained  for  a  firm 
and  respectable  Government. 
France  was  indifferent  as  to 
its  form,  so  long  as  it  guaran- 
teed to  the  country  those  real 
advantages  won  by  the  Revo- 
lution. Taken  all  in  all,  the 
people  were  reluctant  to  have 
the  Bourbons  back.  The  King 
had  just  issued  the  articles  of 
the  programme  he  proposed  realising  on  his  return  to  power,  and  they  were 
such  as  no  Frenchmen,  except  fools,  would  desire  carried  out.  He  claimed  to 
restore  the  royal  prerogative  in  all  its  ancient  and  offensive  supremacy,  and 
promised  on  no  account  to  sanction  the  sale  of  the  national  estates.  Now  tens 
of  thousands  of  peasants  were  interested  in  this  question.  They  had  become 
possessed  of  the  confiscated  estates  of  the  Church  and  of  the  Nobility ;  and 
they  had  acquired  independence  which  they  were  unwilling  to  exchange  for 
vassalage. 


THE    i8tH    BRUMAIRE. 
From  a  composition  of  Dubroca. 


202        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  crowd  of  officials  everywhere  had  an  interest  as  well  in  the  per- 
manence of  the  Republic,  for  with  the  restoration  of  the  Royal  family,  there 
would  come  an  influx  of  emigres^  all  demanding  to  be  put  into  office,  and 
to  make  room  for  them  the  Republican  holders  would  be  thrust  out.  The 
army  to  a  man  was  against  the  Bourbons.  It  was  purged  of  its  noblemen  in 
command,  its  officers  had  risen  from  the  ranks,  or  had  gained  the  confidence  of 
the  military  by  having  led  them  to  victory,  furnished  them  with  plunder,  or 
shared  in  their  reverses  and  privations.  The  clergy  and  all  who  were  led  by 
them  were  divided  into  two  camps.  The  Sermentes  had  organised  a  National 
Church,  with  its  rearranged  dioceses,  governed  by  bishops  who  had  remained 
in  France,  or  others  consecrated  by  them  in  place  of  such  as  had  run  away.  On 
the  other  hand  were  the  Insermentes,  backed  by  the  Pope,  who  abhorred  and 
anathematised  the  newly-formed  National  Church. 

.  Bourrienne  goes  on  to  say,  "  Among  the  schemes  which  Bonaparte  was 
incessantly  revolving  in  his  mind,  may  undoubtedly  be  ranked  the  project  of 
attaining  the  head  of  the  French  Government ;  but  it  would  be  a  mistake  to 
suppose  that,  on  his  return  from  Egypt,  he  had  formed  any  fixed  plan.  There 
was  always  something  vague  in  his  ambitious  aspirations  ;  and  he  was,  if  I  may 
so  express  myself,  fond  of  building  castles  in  the  air.  The  current  of  events 
was  in  accordance  with  his  wishes,  and  it  may  truly  be  said  that  the  whole 
French  nation  smoothed  the  way  for  Bonaparte  that  led  to  power.  Certainly 
the  unanimous  plaudits  and  universal  joy  which  accompanied  him  along  a 
journey  of  more  than  two  hundred  leagues,  must  have  induced  him  to  regard  as 
a  national  mission  that  step  which  was  at  first  prompted  merely  by  his  wish  of 
meddling  with  the  affairs  of  the  Republic. 

"  The  spontaneous  burst  of  popular  feeling,  unordered  and  unpaid  for, 
loudly  proclaimed  the  grievances  of  the  people,  and  their  hope  that  the  man  of 
victory  would  become  their  deliverer.  The  general  enthusiasm  excited  by  the 
return  of  the  conqueror  of  Egypt  delighted  him  to  a  degree  which  I  cannot 
express,  and  was,  as  he  has  often  assured  me,  a  powerful  stimulus  in  urging  him 
to  the  object  to  which  the  wishes  of  France  seemed  to  direct  him." 

There  was  absolutely  no  other  man  to  put  his  hand  to  the  helm,  and  avert 
complete  shipwreck.  If  Napoleon  felt,  as  he  did,  that  all  France  cried  out  to 
him  to  come  to  its  assistance,  just  as  all  England  cried  out  for  William  of 
Orange  to  relieve  it  of  the  cruel  and  incompetent  James,  it  would  have  been 
criminal  in  him  to  have  shrunk  back  and  refused  the  mission  offered  him.  If 
blame  attached  to  Bonaparte,  it  is  not  for  having  accepted  the  power  oppor- 
tunity offered  him,  but  for  the  use  he  made  of  it  to  smother  the  popular  voice, 
and  hamper  popular  representation. 

A  Republic  has  been  found  hitherto  inevitably  to  throw  up  a  rank  crop  of 
mediocre  men  ;  it  grows  them  as  weeds,  it  smothers  genius ;  and  Napoleon, 
indeed  all  France,  saw  that  the  country  was  governed  only  by  vulgar  minds, 
bent  on  plundering  the  public,  and  careless  for  the  general  interest.  The  real 
power  was  in  the  hands  of  the  army,  which  had  determined  two  coups  detat 
already.  Bonaparte  may  have  said  to  himself  that  it  were  well  to  acknowledge 
this  frankly,  and  so  avoid  the  petty  jealousies  and  intrigues  which  made  the 
civil  governors  seek  to  relieve  themselves  of  every  general  who  was  other  than 


THE    i8th    BRUMAIRE  203 

mediocre,  and  dread  every  military  success  lest  it  should  invest  a  successful 
general  with  popularity,  and  inspire  him  with  ambition.  Yet  France  was  at 
this  time  in  no  immediate  danger  from  invasion  ;  and  the  Revolution  was  right- 
ing itself  by  degrees.  The  army  had  already  twice  been  used  with  wholesonae 
effect  in  checking  too  swift  a  reaction.  Napoleon,  returning  under  false 
pretences  of  foreign  conquest,  took  a  base  advantage  of  the  weakness  .which 
preceded  the  birth  of  a  new  regime. 

On  reaching  Paris,  Bonaparte  entered  into  relations  with  all  parties.  With 
the  Directory  he  had  but  to  adopt  his  favourite  military  tactic  of  driving  a 
wedge  into  the  midst,  and  then  falling  on  each  portion  separately.  The 
Jacobins  inspired  him  with  most  distrust.  He  had  posed  as  one  of  them — 
been  the  friend  of  the  younger  Robespierre ;  he  therefore  enjoyed  a  certain 
prestige  among  them.  His  brother  Lucien  had  been  a  fiery  and  noisy  orator 
in  their  clubs,  and  he  had  been  left  by  Napoleon  in  Paris,  to  maintain  relations 
with  them.  Lucien  had  been  elected  President  of  the  Council  of  the  Five 
Hundred,  in  compliment  to  his  name  rather  than  to  his  abilities.  Napoleon 
was  very  desirous  to  disarm  the  suspicions  of  the  club  of  the  Manege,  and 
inspire  confidence  in  him  among  men  who,  he  was  well  aware,  would  scruple  at 
nothing.  He  never  shook  himself  free  of  dread  of  the  Jacobins,  whom  he  knew 
so  well.  Later,  he  gave  an  instance  of  this,  by  appointing  one  to  office  who  had 
figured  at  the  tribune  frequently.  The  arch-treasurer  remonstrated.  "  I  know 
that  what  you  say  is  true,"  answered  Bonaparte.  "  The  man  is  a  savage  beast, 
but  this  dignity  shall  be  his  gag.  When  the  wolf  has  his  throat  stuffed,  he  can 
no  longer  bite." 

He  also  entered  into  correspondence  with  the  Royalists,  and  dangled 
illusive  hopes  before  their  eyes,  so  as  to  obtain  their  neutrality,  if  not  their 
adhesion.  He  was  careful  not  to  write  these  letters  himself,  nor  to  sign 
them. 

He  entered  at  once  into  conference  with  the  generals  who  were  in  Paris. 
Moreau  hesitated.  Napoleon  presented  him  with  a  splendid  sword,  and 
induced  him  to  shut  his  eyes  to  what  passed  before  him.  Bernadotte  was  not 
to  be  won.  He  offered  his  sword  to  the  Directory,  but  the  Directory  were 
in  bewilderment.  Napoleon  was  already  in  the  midst  of  them,  thrusting  them 
apart.  To  Gohier  he  addressed  himself,  and  warned  him  against  Sieyes,  who 
he  said  was  meditating  treason,  scheming  to  invite  a  Brunswick  prince  to  take 
the  control  of  affairs.  He  treated  Sieyes  with  marked  insolence,*  so  as  to 
deceive  Gohier,  and  entered  into  league  with  the  former  against  Gohier. 
Barras  he  had  won  through  his  terrors.  At  last  he  wrung  from  all  the 
Directors,  but  two,  a  resignation  of  their  office ;  then  snatched  a  decree  from 
the  Council  of  the  Ancients  that  the  session  of  the  two  councils  should  be 
transferred,  for  the  morrow,  to  S.  Cloud,  and  that  the  command  of  the  division 
of  the  army  stationed  in  Paris,  of  the  National  Guard,  and  of  the  Guard  of 
the  Legislative  body  should  be  conferred  on  himself.     The  plea  offered  for 

*  It  is  said  by  Marbot  that  Sieyes  had  written  to  Napoleon  in  Egypt  to  advise  him  to  return  and 
effect  a  coup  d^etat. 


204 


THE  LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE 


these  extraordinary  decrees  was  that  a  revolution  was  imminent,  and  the 
freedom  and  security  of  the  Assembly  were  in  jeopardy. 

On  the  17th  Brumaire  (9th  November),  he  made  all  dispositions  necessary 
with  the  troops,  and  assured  himself  that  they  would  follow  him  and  obey 
his  orders.  On  the  i8th  (loth  November)  he  went  to  S.  Cloud,  attended  by  a 
brilliant  staff. 

Moreau,  who  performed  a  blundering  part  throughout  the  business,  had 
been  constituted  gaoler  of  the  two  members  of  the  Directory  who  were  not  in 
the  plot,  or  had  been  overawed.  Gohier  was  made  secure  in  a  very  simple 
manner;  he  was  locked  into  his  bedroom. 


BONAPARTE    AT    SAINT   CLOUD. 
Drawn  by  C.  Minnet,  engraved  by  Helmann. 


The  scenes  in  the  House  of  the  Ancients,  and  in  that  of  the  Five  Hundred, 
have  been  often  described,  and  we  have  such  descriptions  from  several  who 
were  present.  I  will  take  Bourrienne's,  for  he  was  close  to  Napoleon  at  the 
time. 

"  The  sitting  of  the  Ancients,  under  the  presidency  of  Lemercier,  com- 
menced at  one  o'clock.  A  warm  discussion  ensued  upon  the  situation  of 
affairs,  the  resignation  of  the  members  of  the  Directory,  and  the  immediate 
election  of  others.  Great  heat  and  agitation  prevailed  during  the  debate. 
Intelligence  was  every  minute  carried  to  Bonaparte  of  what  was  going  forward, 
and  he  determined  to  enter  the  hall  and  take  part  in  the  discussion.  He 
entered  in  a  hasty  and  angry  way,  which  did  not  give  me  a  favourable  fore- 
boding of  what  he  was  about  to  say.  We  passed  through  a  narrow  passage 
to  the  centre  of  the  hall ;  our  backs  were  turned  to  the  door.     Bonaparte  had 


THE    i8tH    BRUMAIRE. 
By  Bouchot. 


THE    i8th    BRUMAIRE  207 

the  President  to  his  right.     He  could  not  see  him  full  in  the  face.     I  was  close 
to  the  General,  on  his  right.     Berthier  was  on  his  left. 

"  All  the  speeches  which  have  been  subsequently  passed  off  as  having  been 
delivered  by  Bonaparte,  on  this  occasion,  differ  from  each  other  ;  as  well  they 
may,  for  he  delivered  none  to  the  Ancients,  unless  his  confused  conversation 
with  the  President,  which  was  alike  devoid  of  dignity  and  sense,  is  to  be  called 
a  speech.  He  talked  of  his  '  brothers  in  arms,'  and  the  '  frankness  of  a  soldier.' 
The  questions  of  the  President  followed  each  other  rapidly ;  they  were  clear ; 
but  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  anything  more  confused  and  worse  delivered 
than  the  ambiguous  and  perplexed  replies  of  Bonaparte.  He  faltered  without 
-end  of  '  volcanoes,  secret  agitation,  victories,  a  violated  constitution.'  He 
blamed  the  proceedings  of  the  i8th  Fructidor,  of  which  he  was  the  first 
promoter,  and  the  most  powerful  supporter.  He  pretended  to  be  ignorant  of 
everything,  until  the  Council  of  the  Ancients  had  called  him  to  the  aid  of  his 
country.  Then  came  '  Caesar,  Cromwell — tyrant ! '  and  he  several  times  re- 
peated, '  I  have  nothing  more  to  say  to  you ! '  though,  in  fact,  he  had  said 
nothing.  He  alleged  that  he  had  been  called  to  assume  the  supreme  authority, 
on  his  return  from  Italy,  by  the  desire  of  the  nation,  and  afterwards  by  his 
•comrades  in  arms.  Next  followed  the  words,  *  Liberty — equality  ! '  though  it 
was  evident  he  had  not  come  to  S.  Cloud  for  the  sake  of  either.  No  sooner 
did  he  utter  these  words,  than  a  member  of  the  Ancients,  interrupting 
him,  exclaimed,  '  You  forget  the  Constitution ! '  His  countenance  at  once 
lighted  up;  yet  nothing  could  be  distinguished  but  'the  i8th  P'ructidor — 
the  30th  Prairial — hypocrites — intriguers — I  will  disclose  all!  I  will  resign 
my  power  when  the  dangers  shall  have  passed  away  which  now  threaten  the 
Republic' 

"  Bonaparte,  believing  all  his  assertions  to  be  admitted  as  proved,  assumed 
a  little  more  confidence,  and  accused  the  two  Directors,  Barras  and  Moulins, 
^  of  having  proposed  to  put  him  at  the  head  of  a  party  whose  object  was  to 
•oppose  all  men  professing  liberal  ideas.'  At  these  words,  the  falsehood  of 
which  was  obvious,  a  great  tumult  arose  in  the  hall.  A  general  committee 
was  loudly  called  for  to  hear  these  disclosures.  '  No,  no ! '  exclaimed  others  ; 
*  no  general  committee !  Conspirators  have  been  denounced  ;  it  is  right  that 
France  should  know  all.' 

"  Bonaparte  was  then  required  to  enter  into  the  particulars  of  his  accusa- 
4:ion  against  Barras  and  Moulins,  and  of  the  proposals  which  had  been  made 
to  him.     '  You  must  no  longer  conceal  anything.' 

*'  Embarrassed  by  these  interruptions  and  interrogatories,  Bonaparte  believed 
that  he  was  completely  lost.  Instead  of  giving  fresh  explanation  of  what  he 
had  said,  he  began  to  make  fresh  accusations ;  and  against  whom  ?  The 
Council  of  the  Five  Hundred,  who,  he  said,  wished  for  *  scaffolds,  revolutionary 
committees,  and  a  complete  overthrow  of  everything.'  Violent  murmurs  arose, 
and  his  language  became  more  and  more  incoherent  and  inconsequent.  He 
addressed  himself  at  one  moment  to  the  representatives  of  the  people,  who 
were  overcome  with  astonishment;  at  another,  to  the  military  in  the  court- 
yard, who  could  not  hear  him.  Then  by  an  unaccountable  transition,  he  spoke 
of  the  thunderbolts  of  war,  and  added,  that  he  was  attended  by  the  god  of 
War,  and  the  god  of  Fortune. 

"  The  President,  with  great  calmness,  told  him  that  he  saw  absolutely 
nothing  upon  which  the  Council  could  deliberate ;  that  there  was  vagueness  in 
all  he  said.  '  Explain  yourself.  Reveal  this  plot  which  you  say  you  were 
Airged  to  join.' 

"  Bonaparte  repeated  the  same  things.     But  only  such  as  were  present  can 


2o8        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

have  any  conception  of  his  manner.  There  was  not  the  slightest  connection 
in  what  he  stammered  forth. 

"  Perceiving  the  bad  effect  produced  on  the  Assembly  by  this  disconnected 
babble,  as  well  as  the  confusion  of  Bonaparte,  I  said,  in  a  low  voice,  pulling 
him  gently  by  the  skirt  of  his  coat,  '  Withdraw,  General ;  you  know  not  what 
you  are  saying.'  I  made  signs  to  Berthier,  who  was  on  his  left,  to  second 
me  in  persuading  him  to  leave  the  hall ;  and  all  at  once,  after  having  stam- 
mered out  a  few  words  more,  he  turned  round,  exclaiming,  '  Let  those  who  love 
me  follow  me ! '  The  sentinels  at  the  door  offered  no  opposition  to  his  passing. 
The  person  who  went  before  him  quietly  drew  aside  the  tapestry,  which  con- 
cealed the  door,  and  General  Bonaparte  leaped  upon  his  horse,  which  stood 
in  the  courtyard.  It  is  hard  to  say  what  would  have  happened  if,  on  seeing 
the  General  retire,  the  President  had  said,  '  Grenadiers,  let  no  one  pass.' 
Instead  of  sleeping  next  day  at  the  Luxembourg,  he  would,  I  am  convinced^ 
have  ended  his  career  on  the  Place  de  la  Revolution. 

"The  scene  which  occurred  without  was  very  different  from  that  which 
passed  within.  Bonaparte  had  scarcely  reached  the  courtyard  and  mounted 
his  horse,  when  cries  of  '  Vive  Bonaparte ! '  resounded  on  all  sides.  He  had 
yet  to  brave  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  which  was  far  more  excited  than 
the  Council  of  the  Ancients.  Everything  was  in  dreadful  uncertainty ;  but  it 
was  too  late  to  draw  back.  We  had  staked  already  too  heavily.  The  game 
was  desperate,  and  everything  was  to  be  ventured. 

"  Our  apprehensions  were  not  without  foundation.  In  the  Council  of  Five 
Hundred  agitation  was  at  its  height.  It  had  been  resolved  to  announce  to 
the  Directory  the  installation  of  the  Councils,  and  to  inquire  of  the  Council 
of  the  Ancients  their  reason  for  resolving  on  this  extraordinary  convocation. 
But  the  Directory  no  longer  existed.  Sieyes  and  Roger-Ducos  had  joined 
Bonaparte.  Gohier  and  Moulins  were  prisoners  in  the  Luxembourg,  in  the 
custody  of  General  Moreau  ;*  and  at  the  very  moment  when  the  Council 
of  the  Five  Hundred  had  drawn  up  a  message  to  the  Directory,  the  Council 
of  the  Ancients  transmitted  to  them  the  resignation  of  Barras,  which  was 
immediately  read  by  Lucien  Bonaparte,  who  was  President  of  the  Council  of 
the  Five  Hundred. 

"  This  letter  occasioned  a  great  sensation,  and  a  question  was  mooted, 
whether  such  a  retirement  was  legal.  At  that  moment  Bonaparte  appeared, 
followed  by  a  party  of  grenadiers,  who  remained  at  the  entrance  of  the  halL 
I  did  not  accompany  him  to  the  Council  of  the  Five  Hundred." 

/-*  It  was  obvious,  even  to  Bonaparte,  that  if  the  Council  of  the  Ancients,  the 
majority  of  which  had  obeyed  him  blindly  the  day  before,  had  shown  its 
resolve  not  to  be  browbeaten  and  misused,  he  could  have  less  forbearance 
and  submission  to  expect  from  that  of  the  Five  Hundred.  And  on  entering 
the  Orangery  in  which  the  Council  was  assembled,  it  was  evident  to  him  that 
the  greatest  exasperation  prevailed,  and  that  the  Council  was  likely  to  proceed 
to  declaring  him  an  outlaw — that  terrible  sentence  which  had  lost  Robespierre. 
He  was  met  with  cries  of  "  Down  with  the  Tyrant ! "  "  Long  live  the 
Republic  ! "  "  Vive  la  Constitution  !  "  "  Outlaw  the  Dictator  !"  One  shouted, 
"Is  this  the  fruit  of  your  victories ? " 

*  This  was  a  skilful  movement  on  the  part  of  Bonaparte  ;  he  compromised  the  wavering  Moreau  by 
making  him  hold  these  two  Directors  in  arrest,  and  Moreau,  with  the  pedantry  of  an  inferior  mind,  sub- 
mitted to  the  order  of  Bonaparte,  because  the  latter  had  been  legally  invested  the  day  before  with  the 
command,  and  was  therefore  his  superior  officer. 


THE    i8th    BRUMAIRE  209 

In  face  of  this  tumult,  Bonaparte  lost  all  presence  of  mind.  The  Deputies 
left  their  seats,  surrounded  him,  thrust  him  back  ;  some  laid  hold  of  his.  collar 
and  shook  him,  whilst  they  reproached  him  with  treason.  Bonaparte  turned 
pale,  and  fainted  in  the  arms  of  his  grenadiers,  who  drew  him  out  of  the 
conservatory.  Augereau,  who  had  followed  him  reluctantly,  said  aside,  with 
irony  in  his  tone,  "  Here  you  are  in  a  pretty  quandary ! " 

Outside,  Bonaparte  went  to  the  railing,  where  Sieyes  was  seated  in  a 
carriage,  to  which  were  harnessed  six  horses,  ready  to  start  at  full  gallop, 
should  the  coup  fail.  "  Do  they  want  to  outlaw  you  ?  "  sneered  Sieyes.  "  Then 
outlaw  them  yourself." 

Bonaparte  recovered  his  presence  of  mind,  hastened  to  the  chamber  where 
his  staff,  thirty  in  number,  was  assembled,  and  found  them  much  discouraged. 
He  had  a  whip  in  his  hand,  which  he  smote  on  the  table,  exclaiming,  "  We 
must  put  an  end  to  this."     Then  he  went  forth,  and  all  followed. 

In  the  courtyard  was  a  regiment  of  infantry  just  arrived  from  Paris. 
Napoleon  mounted  his  horse,  harangued  them,  rode  to  the  grand  staircase, 
dismounted,  and  ascended  the  stairs. 

Everything  was  done  to  stir  the  soldiers  to  action.  Serrurier  declared 
that  in  the  Council  an  attempt  had  been  made  to  assassinate  the  Commander- 
in-Chief 

Meanwhile,  within  the  hall  the  tumult  waxed  more  furious.  The  members 
shouted  that  Lucien,  the  President,  should  declare  his  brother  an  outlaw. 
Lucien  tried  to  make  himself  heard,  but  was  interrupted  by  shouts  of  "  Bona- 
parte has  tarnished  his  glory !  He  is  a  disgrace  to  the  Republic ! "  and  new 
cries  for  a  sentence  of  outlawry.  At  this  moment  Lucien  was  master  of  the 
situation.  But  for  him,  Napoleon's  career  would  have  been  closed  at  this 
point,  as  was  that  of  Robespierre.  Lucien,  unable  to  make  himself  heard, 
sent  for  an  escort  of  grenadiers  for  his  protection,  and  to  enforce  order.  They 
•entered  just  as  Lucien  had  resigned  the  Presidency,  and  cast  off  his  robes. 
The  grenadiers  rescued  him  from  the  hands  of  the  incensed  Deputies,  and 
carried  him  outside. 

A  moment  had  arrived  that  was  eminently  critical.  In  another  minute  the 
Council  would  have  replaced  Lucien,  and  the  sentence  would  have  been  pro- 
nounced. But  Lucien  was  alive  to  the  danger,  and  equal  to  the  occasion.  He 
sprang  on  his  brother's  horse,  and  addressed  the  soldiers.  He  represented 
himself  as  the  President  of  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  who  appealed  to 
them  to  protect  the  liberties  of  the  Assembly,  menaced  by  a  minority  full  of 
violence,  that  were  in  the  pay  of  England. 

"  I  declare  to  you  that  these  brigands  have  risen  in  revolt  against  the 
Council  of  the  Ancients,  and  have  dared  to  talk  of  outlawing  the  General,  who 
is  charged  with  the  execution  of  its  decree,  as  if  the  word  outlaw  was  still  to  be 
regarded  as  the  death-warrant  of  those  most  beloved  by  the  country. 

'•'  In  the  name  of  the  people  of  France,  who  for  so  many  years  have  been 
the  sport  of  terrorism,  I  consign  to  you  the  charge  of  rescuing  the  majority  of 
the  representatives,  so  that,  delivered  from  stilettos  by  your  bayonets,  they  may 
deliberate  on  the  fate  of  the  Republic. 


210        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

"General,  and  you,  soldiers,  and  you,  citizens,  you  will  acknowledge, 
as  legislators  of  France,  none  but  such  as  rally  round  me.  As  for  those  who 
remain  in  the  Orangery,  let  force  expel  them.  They  are  not  the  representatives 
of  the  people,  but  of  the  poignard." 

Notwithstanding  the  cries  of  "  Vive  Bonaparte  ! "  which  followed  this 
audacious  harangue,  the  troops  still  hesitated.  Lucien  then  drew  his  sword,  ex- 
claiming, "  I  swear  that  I  will  stab  my  own  brother  to  the  heart,  if  he  ever 


THE    i8tH    BRUMAIRE. 
After  a  contemporary  English  engraving. 

attempt  anything  against  the  liberties  of  Frenchmen."  This  bit  of  melodrama 
succeeded  ;  hesitation  vanished ;  and  at  a  signal  given  by  Bonaparte,  Murat,  at 
the  head  of  his  grenadiers,  rushed  into  the  hall,  in  which  the  jabbering  and  con- 
fusion was  like  that  of  a  parrot-house.  The  sight  of  the  glittering  bayonets 
was  enough  for  the  Five  Hundred,  and  they  dispersed,  creeping  under  benches, 
hiding  under  baize-covered  tables,  and  making  their  exit  by  windows  and 
doors. 
^^y  The  coup  d'etat^  which  had  nearly  failed  through  the  blundering  of  Napoleon^ 
had  succeeded  through  the  presence  of  mind  of  Lucien. 

That  same  night  Bonaparte  issued  a  proclamation  to  the  people,  which 
almost  surpassed  the  address  of  his  brother  in  its  falsification  of  facts. 


THE    i8th    BRUMAIRE  211 

19th  Brumaire,  11  o'clock  p.m. 

"  Frenchmen  !  On  my  return  to  France,  I  found  division  reigning  amongst 
the  authorities.  They  agreed  on  a  single  point  only,  that  the  Constitution  was 
half  dead,  and  was  unable  to  protect  liberty. 

"  Each  party  in  turn  came  to  me,  confided  to  me  its  designs,  and  requested 
my  support.     I.  refused  to  be  the  man  of  a  party. 

"  The  Council  of  the  Anciqnts  appealed  to  me.  I  answered  their  appeal.  A 
plan  of  general  restoration  had  been  concerted  by  men  whom  the  nation  regard 
as  the  champions  of  liberty,  equality,  and  property.  This  plan  required  calm 
and  free  deliberation.  The  Ancients  resolved,  therefore,  the  removal  of 
the  legislative  bodies  to  S.  Cloud.  They  placed  at  my  disposal  the  force  neces- 
sary to  secure  their  independence.  I  was  bound,  by  duty  to  my  fellow-citizens, 
to  our  soldiers,  to  the  national  glory,  to  accept  the  command. 

"  The  Councils  assembled  at  S.  Cloud.  Republican  troops  guaranteed 
safety  from  without,  but  assassins  created  terror  within.  Members  of  the 
Council  of  Five  Hundred,  armed  with  daggers  and  pistols,  spread  threats  of 
death  within.  .  .  .  Then  the  boldest  orators  were  disconcerted,  and  the  inutility 
of  submitting  salutary  propositions  to  discussion  was  made  evident. 

"  I  proceeded,  filled  with  indignation  and  grief,  to  the  Council  of  the 
Ancients.  I  besought  them  to  carry  their  noble  designs  into  execution.  .  .  . 
I  presented  myself  before  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  alone,  unarmed, 
my  head  uncovered.  .  .  .  The  stilettos  which  had  menaced  the  Deputies  were 
instantly  raised  against  their  deliverer.  Twenty  assassins  rushed  upon  me, 
and  aimed  at  my  breast.  The  grenadiers,  whom  I  had  left  at  the  door,  ran  for- 
ward and  placed  themselves  between  me  and  the  assassins.  One  of  these 
brave  men  had  his  clothes  pierced  by  a  stiletto.     They  bore  me  off. 

"  At  the  same  moment,  cries  of  '  Outlaw  him  ! '  were  raised  against  the 
defender  of  the  law.  It  was  the  horrid  cry  of  the  assassins  against  the  power  in- 
voked to  repress  them." 

Next  follows  an  account  of  the  clearing  of  the  Orangery,  which  is  fairly 
correct.     Then  comes  the  peroration. 

"  Frenchmen,  you  recognise  in  this  conduct  the  zeal  of  a  soldier  of  liberty, 
of  a  citizen  devoted  to  the  Republic.  Conservative,  tutelary,  and  liberal  ideas 
resumed  their  authority  upon  the  dispersion  of  the  factions,  who,  in  rendering 
themselves  the  most  odious  of  men,  did  not  cease  to  be  the  most  con- 
temptible." 

The  scene,  as  described  by  Bonaparte  in  this  travesty,  has  been  often 
painted.  But  the  poignards  and  pistols  are  pure  fiction.  Bourrienne  was  not 
in  the  conservatory  at  the  time,  but  he  says  that  he  does  not  believe  in  them, 
"  because  Bonaparte  never  mentioned  a  word  of  it  to  me,  either  on  the 
way  home,  or  when  I  was  with  him  in  his  chamber.  ^  Neither  did  he  say 
anything  on  the  subject  to  his  wife." 

Eugene  Beauharnais,  in  his  Memoirs^  says  that  he  was  present,  and  saw  no 
daggers  raised  against  Napoleon.  No  eye-witness  has  been  produced  who 
could  say  that  what  Bonaparte  asserted  in  his  manifesto  was  true.  Thibeaudeau 
stoutly  denied  it.  Lavallette,  indeed,  says  that  one  of  the  grenadiers  received 
a  thrust  from  a  dagger,  which  penetrated  his  coat,  and  that  Arena,  the  Corsican 
Deputy,  was  designated  as  the  person  who  used  the  weapon.  But  he  was  no 
eye-witness,  and  he  says,  "  Having  left  France  a   few  days   after  the    i8th 


212        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Brumaire,  I  could  obtain  no  particulars  of  the  affair."  The  fact  seems  to 
have  been  that  Arena  had  been  paring  his  nails  when  Bonaparte  entered,  and 
that  he  kept  his  penknife  in  hand,  and  spoke  flourishing  it. 

But  it  was  a  convenient  fable,  and  was  improved  upon.  The  grenadier, 
Thomas  Thome,  who  had  a  bit  of  his  collar  torn  in  the  medley,  was  trans- 
formed into  a  hero,  who  had  interposed  his  body  between  the  dagger  and  his 
General  ;  and  at  a  review  Josephine  weepingly  embraced  and  thanked  him  for 
having  saved  her  husband's  life  ;  and  he  was  advanced  to  be  a  captain. 


THE    COUNCIL   OF    FIVE    HUNDRED    DISPERSED. 
From  a  contemporary  engraving. 


In  the  evening,  at  nine  o'clock,  Lucien  assembled  thirty  of  the  Five  Hundred, 
some  bought  over,  others  cowed,  and  they  assumed  the  title  of  the  majority  of 
the  Council.  They  decreed  that  Bonaparte  had  deserved  well  of  his  country, 
and  that  a  provisional  Government  should  be  constituted,  to  consist  of  three 
Consuls,  Bonaparte,  Sieyes,  and  Ducos,  and  of  two  Committees  of  twenty-five 
members  each,  formed  out  of  the  two  Councils,  to  assist  the  Consuls  in 
the  work  of  reorganisation.  The  sessions  of  the  Councils  were  prorogued  till 
the  1st  Ventose  (20th  February,  1800),  and  sixty-two  representatives,  who  had 
opposed  the  coup  d'etat,  were  deposed  from  their  places.  To  this  exclusion  was 
added  another  list,  a  few  days  later,  of  men  peculiarly  obnoxious  to  Napoleon's 
policy,  who  were  to  be  deported  from  France. 

The  three  Consuls  then  took  the  oath  before  this  figment  of  an  assembly. 
Napoleon  first  of  all,  "  To  maintain  inviolable  fidelity  to  legality,  liberty,  and 


THE    i8th    BRUMAIRE  213 

the  representative  system."  After  which  Lucien  felicitated  the  Council  on  the 
work  it  had  achieved. 

"  Representatives  of  the  people,"  he  said,  "  French  liberty  was  born  in  the 
Tennis  Court  at  Versailles.  Since  that  immortal  day  it  has  dragged  out 
its  existence  athwart  weakness,  inconsequence,  and  the  convulsive  sicknesses  of 
infancy.  To-day  it  has  assumed  the  virile  vesture.  Hardly  have  you  en- 
throned it  in  the  confidence  and  love  of  the  French,  before  the  smile  of  peace 
and  prosperity  breaks  upon  its  lips.  Representatives  of  the  people,  listen  to  the 
sublime  cry  of  posterity.  If  liberty  was  born  at  Versailles,  in  the  Jeu  de 
Paume,  it  was  consolidated  in  the  Orangery  at  S.  Cloud." 

Verily  there  is  no  effrontery  equal  to  that  assumed  by  falsehood. 

Madame  de  Remusat  certainly  expresses  the  truth  as  to  the  attitude 
of  France  at  this  moment. 

"  All  classes,  outraged  and  disgusted  by  the  horrors  of  the  Revolution,  and 
grateful  to  the  consular  Government,  which  preserved  us  from  a  Jacobite 
reaction,  hailed  its  coming  into  power  as  a  new  era  for  the  country.  Generally 
speaking,  nobody  in  France  wanted  anything  except  quiet,  the  right  to 
free  exercise  of  the  intellect,  the  cultivation  of  private  virtues,  and  the  repara- 
tion, by  degrees,  of  those  losses  of  fortune  which  were  common  to  all. 

"When  I  remember  the  dreams  which  I  cherished  at  that  time,  the 
recollection  makes  me  sick  at  heart.  To  use  a  simile  of  Bonaparte's,  I  looked 
at  all  things  through  a  gilded  veil,  which  makes  them  bright  and  sparkling. 

" '  Little  by  little,'  said  he,  *  this  veil  thickens  as  we  advance  in  life,  until  all 
is  nearly  black.'  Alas !  he  himself  soon  stained  with  blood  that  gilded  veil 
through  which  France  had  gladly  contemplated  him."  * 

The  people  of  France  said  of  this  new  coup  cT^tat,  "  It  is  only  another  turn- 
ing over  of  the  Dungheap  ! " 

But  the  people  is  not  gifted  with  perspicuity.  It  did  not  perceive  that,  by 
the  1 8th  Brumaire,  it  had  given  to  itself  a  master  more  terrible  in  his  exaction 
of  blood  than  was  Robespierre. 

*  Memoirs^  i.  69. 


XXVIII 
THE    FAMILY    BONAPARTE    IN   1799 

T  T  has  been  said  of  Talleyrand  that  he  would  have  sold  his  soul  to  the  devil 
-■-  for  gold,  but  in  so  doing  would  have  cheated  the  Evil  One,  who,  for  his 
gold,  would  have  received  dirt.  The  same,  with  far  greater  truth,  might  have 
been  asserted  of  Barras.  His  contemporaries,  with  rare  unanimity,  speak  of 
him  as  infamous;  but  one  might  have  thought  there  was  some  misapprehension. 
However,  the  man  has  left  his  own  Memoirs,  and  thereby  set  a  seal  to  the 
consensus  of  opinion,  that  described  him  as  the  vilest  of  men.  As  such  he  has 
depicted  himself. 

It  is  not  possible  to  read  without  disgust  his  account  of  the  relations  in 
which  he  stood  to  Josephine,  and  of  the  marriage  of  Napoleon.  It  must 
unhappily  be  admitted  that  Josephine  was  of  no  unblemished  character ;  that 
her  easy,  Creole  nature — at  a  time  when  religion  had  been  swept  away,  and 
moral  restraints  were  unregarded — allowed  itself  full  swing  in  a  corrupt  and 
godless  society.  But  it  is  absolutely  impossible  to  believe  Barras's  statement 
that  Napoleon  took  her  to  wife  with  his  eyes  open  to  her  tarnished  reputation. 

If  the  foul  and  spiteful  narrative  of  Barras  be  attentively  considered,  it  seems 
tolerably  certain  that  Bonaparte  was  deceived  as  to  her  character  ;  and  in  the 
matter  of  his  marriage  he  shows  in  his  best  colours. 

The  pages  of  Barras  relative  to  Josephine  will  not  bear  quotation,  nor  is  it 
necessary  to  do  so.  Josephine,  though  married  to  the  Vicomte  de  Beauharnais, 
had  not  been  regarded  as  admissible  at  Court,  not  being  qualified  thereto  by  her 
birth.  Beauharnais  was  a  beautiful  dancer,  and  an  agreeable  man,  and  he  was 
received  at  Versailles  and  the  Tuileries.  He  neglected  his  wife,  and  they 
separated  by  mutual  consent.  When  imprisoned,  and  expecting  his  death,  he 
wrote  to  her,  expressing  fraternal  regard.  She  seems  to  have  contracted  an 
intimacy  with  a  man  of  colour.  Madame  Junot  says  that  she  married  this  man  ; 
but  this  does  not  seem  to  have  been  the  case.  When  in  prison,  she  formed  an 
attachment  for  Hoche  ;  and,  after  that,  for  an  Alsatian  groom  of  the  stables, 
named  Vanakre;  and  finally  shared,  with  Madame  Tallien,  the  favour  of 
Barras. 

As  already  said,  she  was  a  good  many  years  older  than  Napoleon.  She  was 
full  of  the  ease,  grace,  and  charm  of  the  old  regime,  and  though  not  tinged  with 
black  blood,  she  had  the  dolce  far  niente  of  the  Creole.     Bonaparte  had  never 

214 


THE    FAMILY    BONAPARTE    IN    1799  215 

associated  with  any  ladies  except  Madame  de  Permon,  and  he  fell  completely 
under  the  fascination  of  the  widow  Beauharnais,  and  Josephine  maintained  this 
power  over  him  to  the  last.  It  may  be  said  with  confidence,  that  she  was  the 
only  woman  he  ever  truly  loved,  and  that  he  loved  her  to  the  end.  That  he  had 
heard  some  of  the  stories  told  about  Josephine — or  Rose,  as  she  was  then 
called — is  possible  ;  if  so,  he  had  too  much^^generosity  of  mind,  and  respect  for 
her,  to  believe  them.  Barras  says — and  in  this  may  speak  the  truth — that 
Josephine,  finding  that  some  malicious  person  had  told  her  young  admirer  of  the 
relation  in  which  she  stood  to  the  Director,  forestalled  the  explosion,  by  com- 
plaining to  Napoleon  of  some  impertinent  and  offensive  words  addressed  to 
her  by  Barras,  and  threw  herself  on  his  protection.  With  the  chivalry  of  an 
honourable  man,  and  in  full  conviction  of  her  innocence,  he  married  her,  and 
gave  himself  a  right  to  use  his  arm  in  her  defence. 

Barras  will  not  allow  that  there  was  any  chivalry  in  Bonaparte,  but  through 
all  the  disguise,  misstatement,  and  exaggeration  of  his  tale,  the  chivalry,  the 
generosity  of  Napoleon's  conduct  gleam  forth.  Josephine  had  mortal  enemies 
in  his  mother  and  brothers.  They  knew  what  her  antecedents  were,  and  they 
had  desired  for  the  head  of  the  family  a  union  with  someone  with  an 
unblemished  past.  Junot,  as  aide-de-camp  to  the  General,  saw  a  good  deal  of 
Josephine,  and  disliked  her.  He  had  been  commissioned  to  conduct  her 
to  Toulon,  and  on  the  journey  she  had  allowed  him  to  see  the  worst  side  of  her 
character. 

But  although  Josephine  had  this  tainted  record,  her  errors  were  due  to  an 
easy-going,  pleasure-loving,  frivolous  nature,  and  not  to  any  viciousness  of 
mind.  Even  Barras  allows  this.  And  when  she  married  Napoleon  all  that  was 
coarse  and  base  in  her  gave  way  before  the  love  that  gradually  mastered  her,  and 
sublimated  her  entire  character.  Strong  in  mind  and  firm  in  resolution  she 
never  was  ;  but  affection,  kindly  disposition,  graceful  courtesy,  and  generous 
emotions — these  were  qualities  that  could  not  be  denied  her. 

If  I  am  not  greatly  in  error,  Bonaparte's  relations  with  Josephine  materially 
affected  his  estimate  of  mankind.  He  married  her,  believing  her  to  be  what  he 
wished  her  to  be ;  and  then  discovered  what  he  ought  to  have  learned  before 
taking  that  step  ;  next,  her  conduct  for  the  first  two  years  after  marriage 
unhappily  confirmed  him  in  the  low  estimate  he  had  formed,  when  it  was  too 
late  to  draw  back.  He  had  long  ceased  to  believe  in  principles.  Josephine 
taught  him  to  disbelieve  in  persons. 

By  all  accounts  he  loved  her  passionately.  His  letters  to  her  from  Italy 
show  this.  She  simulated  the  love  in  return  which  she  did  not  feel.  He 
accepted  this  affectation  of  affection  as  sterling  coin,  and  then  discovered,  with  a 
shock,  how  he  had  been  duped. 

When  he  was  in  Egypt,  Junot  thought  it  advisable  to  tell  him  of  Josephine's 
misconduct,  or  reported  misconduct.  Napoleon  was  furious,  and  talked  of 
divorce;  his  friends  with  difficulty  restrained  him  from  publishing  his  dishonour, 
which  was,  in  fact,  unproved. 

But  he  himself  was  far  from  immaculate.     In  Egypt,  he  had  fallen  in  love 


2i6        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

with  Pauline  Foures,  the  wife  of  an  infantry  lieutenant.  To  get  rid  of  the 
husband,  he  despatched  him  to  France  with  letters  to  the  Directory,  but  Foures 
was  taken  by  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  who,  much  to  Napoleon's  disgust,  returned  him  to 
the  General.  Mme.  Foures  was  a  native  of  Carcassonne  ;  her  father  was  a  gentle- 
man and  her  mother  a  cook.  She  was  fair-haired,  pretty,  saucy,  agreeable,  but  was 
unpolished  in  mind  and  manner.  She  followed  her  husband  to  Egypt  dressed 
in  male  attire.  When  there,  she  attracted  Bonaparte's  attention,  and  he  made 
her  his  mistress.  "  Bonaparte,"  says  Bourrienne,  "  wished  to  have  a  child  by 
Madame  Foures,  but  this  wish  w^as  not  realised."  Upon  the  unexpected 
reappearance  of  the  lieutenant  there  was  some  discomfiture,  but  the  wife 
appealed  to  the  Commissary-General,  who  to  oblige  her  and  Napoleon,. 
pronounced  a  divorce.  When  Napoleon  quitted  Egypt  he  left  her  behind. 
Kleber,  who  was  in  command,  treated  her  with  cold  contempt,  and  as  she  was 
divorced  from  her  husband,  and  Bonaparte  had  left  her  no  money,  she  was 
reduced  to  great  straits. 

When  Napoleon  arrived  in  France,  and  the  tidings  reached  Paris,  Josephine 
set  off  to  meet  him,  along  with  Louis,  who  had  been  sent  home  with  despatches 
from  Egypt.  Unhappily,  she  missed  her  husband,  owing  to  his  having  taken 
a  different  route  from  that  which  he  announced  he  would  follow. 

Madame  Junot,  in  her  Memoirs^  says  : — 

"Madame  Bonaparte  was  a  prey  to  great  and  well-founded  uneasiness. 
Whether  guilty,  or  only  imprudent,  she  was  strongly  accused  by  the  Bonaparte 
family,  who  were  desirous  that  Napoleon  should  obtain  a  divorce.  .  .  .  Madame 
Bonaparte  committed  a  great  fault,  at  this  juncture,  in  neglecting  to  conciliate 
her  mother-in-law,  who  might  have  protected  her  against  those  who  sought  her 
ruin.  .  .  .  Bonaparte,  on  his  arrival  in  Paris,  found  his  house  abandoned  ;  but  his 
mother,  sisters,  and  sisters-in-law,  and,  in  short,  every  member  of  his  family, 
except  Louis,  who  had  attended  Madame  Bonaparte  to  Lyons,  came  to  him 
immediately.  The  impression  made  upon  him  by  the  solitude  of  his  home, 
and  its  desertion  by  its  mistress,  was  profound  and  terrible,  and  nine  years 
afterwards,  when  the  ties  between  him  and  Josephine  were  severed  for  ever, 
he  showed  that  it  was  not  effaced.  From  not  finding  her  with  his  family, 
he  inferred  that  she  felt  herself  unworthy  of  their  presence,  and  feared  to  meet 
the  man  she  had  wronged.  M.  de  Bourrienne  says  that,  for  some  days  after 
Josephine's  return,  Bonaparte  treated  her  with  extreme  coldness.  Why  does 
he  not  state  the  whole  truth,  and  say  that  on  her  return  Bonaparte  refused 
to  see  her,  and  indeed  did  not  see  her?  It  was  to  the  earnest  entreaties  of 
her  children  that  she  owed  the  recovery,  not  of  her  husband's  love,  for  that  had 
long  ceased,  but  of  that  tenderness  acquired  by  habit,  and  that  intimate  inter- 
course which  made  her  so  long  retain  the  rank  of  consort  to  the  greatest  man 
of  his  age.  In  the  delicate  negotiation  it  was  policy  not  to  bring  any  other 
person  into  play  .  .  .  (therefore  she  chose  the  children).  It  was  expedient  that 
they  who  interceded  for  her  should  be  able  to  say  something  without  the 
possibility  of  a  reply.  Now  Bonaparte  could  not,  with  any  degree  of  propriety, 
explain  to  such  children  as  Eugene  and  Hortense,  the  particulars  of  their 
mother's  conduct.  He  was  therefore  constrained  to  silence,  and  had  no  argu- 
ment wherewith  to  combat  the  tears  of  two  innocent  creatures  at  his  feet, 
exclaiming,  *  Do  not  abandon  our  mother ;  she  will  break  her  heart ! ' 

"  The  scene,  as  Bonaparte  has  since  stated,  was  long  and  painful,  and  the 


THE    FAMILY    BONAPARTE    IN    1799  217 

two  children  at  length  introduced  their  mother,  and  placed  her  in  his  arms. 
The  unhappy  woman  had  awaited  his  decision  at  the  door  of  a  small  back 
staircase,  extended  at  almost  full  length  upon  the  stairs,  suffering  the  acutest 
pangs  of  mental  torture." 

But  his  disappointment  in  Josephine  was  not  the  sole  cause  of  Napoleon's 
loss  of  faith  in  mankind.  A  man  may  upset  his  reliance  on  other  men  by 
being  false  to  his  own  convictions,  by  being  treacherous  to  his  own  friends. 
Now  Bonaparte,  as  we  have  seen,  had  behaved  with  extraordinary  duplicity 
towards  the  ideal  hero  of  his  youth,  Paoli,  and  he  did  not  behave  in  an  honour- 
able manner  towards  any  man  with  whom  he  was  brought  into  relationship, 
when  it  suited  his  convenience  to  throw  him  over.  I  lay  no  stress  on  his 
change  of  political  opinion.  All  France  had  swung  from  extremity  of  Radicalism 
to  strong  Conservatism.  When  Marbot  says  that  experience  of  the  Revolution 
produced  in  him  the  impression  that  such  upheavals  throw  the  commonplace 
men  into  power,  and  that  he  had  learned  "to  abhor  all  that  tended  to  democracy, 
so  convinced  was  he  that  the  masses  are  blind,  and  that  the  worst  government 
of  all  is  that  of  the  People,"  he  repeats  what  everyone  said  and  thought  in 
France  in  1799.  Napoleon  had  gone  through  the  same  phase  of  disenchant- 
ment. 

But  a  very  different  matter  from  change  of  opinion  was  his  treatment  of 
persons.  There  is  no  moral  cowardice  in  changing  political  opinions  according 
to  evidence  which  tends  to  upset  and  alter  those  once  entertained,  but  there  is 
moral  cowardice  in  laying  blame  on  innocent  persons  for  errors  committed  by 
oneself;  and  such  moral  cowardice  inevitably  produces  moral  deterioration. 

Now  Bonaparte  had  begun,  when  in  Italy,  to  shift  the  blame  for  not  sending 
home  money — the  spoil  of  Italy — on  others,  at  the  time  that  he  was  appro- 
priating vast  sums  for  himself,  and  lodging  them  with  bankers  under  fictitious 
names ;  but  he  did  not  encounter  any  serious  disasters  till  he  was  in  Egypt, 
and  then  he  began  a  mean  system  of  charging  failures  upon  those  who  were 
guiltless,  so  as  to  relieve  himself  from  responsibility.  In  the  matter  of  Aboukir, 
Admiral  Brueys  had  indeed  failed  to  act  on  the  instructions  received  by  him 
from  Bonaparte,  and  he  therefore  deserved  the  blame  that  attached  to  his 
memory.  Had  he  taken  up  the  position  indicated  by  Bonaparte  behind  the 
island,  it  would  have  been  impregnable.  Kleber  had  been  loyal,  brave,  and 
wise,  in  Egypt.  No  sooner  had  the  assassin's  dagger  relieved  Bonaparte  of  the 
risk  of  being  answered,  than  he  made  Kleber  responsible  for  all  the  disasters 
of  the  Egyptian  campaign.  Later  on,  when  he  was  too  powerful  to  fear  con- 
tradiction. Napoleon  boldly  accused  of  error,  of  neglect,  of  treachery,  men  who 
were  his  own  generals  and  marshals ;  knowing  well  that  they  could  not,  dared 
not,  contradict  him.     This  it  was  which  alienated  so  many  of  them  from  him. 

No  man  can  act  in  such  a  manner  without  injury  to  himself.  If  he  sees  his 
own  heart  to  be  full  of  treachery  and  falsehood,  he  becomes  a  sceptic  with 
regard  to  other  men.  "  Faites  que  doit  et  devienne  que  pourra"  was  never 
a  maxim  with  this  shifty  and  subtle  mind.  But  we  must  never  forget,  when 
inclined  to  judge  this  moral  scepticism  in  Napoleon,  that  it  was  bred,  in  part. 


2i8        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

by  his  disappointment  in  Josephine,  the  woman  in  whom  he  had  believed,  and 
to  whom  he  had  given  up  his  whole  heart.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
he  knew  of  her  past  story.  He  did  not  move  in  the  society  that  could  have 
enlightened  him  as  to  it. 

Josephine  has  won  our  pity,  and  even  recovered  some  of  our  respect ;  but 
it  seems  to  me  that  she,  who  might  have  developed  in  Napoleon  those  high  and 
generous  emotions  which  were  in  him,  failed  to  do  so,  and  extinguished  them 
for  ever. 

Bourrienne  says,  "  He  did  not  esteem  mankind,  whom,  indeed,  he  despised 
more  and  more  in  proportion  as  he  became  acquainted  with  them.  In  him  this 
unfavourable  opinion  of  human  nature  was  justified  by  many  glaring  examples 
of  baseness,  and  he  was  wont  frequently  to  repeat,  *  There  are  two  levers  for 
moving  men — interest  and  fear.'  .  .  .  One  of  Bonaparte's  greatest  misfortunes 
was,  that  he  neither  believed  in  friendship  nor  felt  the  necessity  of  loving. 
How  often  have  I  heard  him  say,  '  Friendship  is  but  a  name ;  I  love  nobody. 
I  do  not  even  love  my  brothers.  Perhaps  Joseph  a  little,  from  habit  and 
because  he  is  my  elder ;  and  Duroc,  I  love  him  too.  But  why?  Because  his 
character  pleases  me.  He  is  stern  and  resolute.  As  long  as  I  continue  what 
I  am,  I  may  have  as  many  pretended  friends  as  I  please.  Leave  sensibility  to 
women,  it  is  their  business ;  but  men  should  be  firm  in  heart  as  in  purpose,  or 
they  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  war  or  government.' 

"  In  his  social  relations,  Bonaparte's  temper  was  bad  ;  but  his  fits  of  ill- 
humour  passed  away  like  a  cloud,  and  spent  themselves  in  words." 

Bonaparte  had  certainly  a  justification  for  his  contempt  for  mankind.  The 
Revolution  had  brought  to  the  surface  a  fungous  growth  of  absolutely  un- 
principled scoundrels,  who  mouthed  patriotic  and  liberal  sentiments,  and  who 
had  no  other  ambition  than  to  get  together  money,  or  secure  power  for 
themselves. 

Although  Napoleon  may  have  said  that  he  did  not  love  his  brothers,  his 
actions  showed  the  contrary.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  bright  trait  in  his  character  that  he 
manifested  the  greatest  consideration  for  the  welfare  of  his  family.  Unless  we 
attribute  this  to  his  pride,  we  must  allow  affection.  But  he  was  doubtless 
actuated  by  mixed  motives  in  all  he  did  for  his  brothers  and  sisters.  There  was 
family  tenderness,  but  there  was  personal  pride  as  well.  When  he  was  a  poor 
lieutenant  at  Valence,  he  underwent  privations  that  he  might  further  the  educa- 
tion of  Louis ;  and  his  first  solicitude,  on  his  return  from  Italy,  was  to  establish 
his  brothers  well  in  Paris. 

Some  little  account  of  his  family  may  here  be  given,  and  we  will  begin  with 
his  mother. 

"  Madame  Bonaparte,"  says  Mme.  Junot,  "  was  of  a  lofty  and  elevated  char- 
acter. A  widow  at  an  early  age,  in  a  country  where  the  head  of  the  family  is 
everything,  the  young  mother  found  it  necessary  to  call  up  all  the  energy  of  her 
character.  She  was  gifted  with  that  delicacy  of  perception  which  distinguishes 
Corsicans,  but  in  her  this  quality  did  not  degenerate  into  hypocrisy,  as  in  some 
of  her  children.  Indeed,  she  was  habitually  candid.  She  evinced  firmness  in 
certain  circumstances,  but  in  others  extravagant  obstinacy.  This  was  obvious  in 
a  number  of  the  systematic  triflings  which  composed  the  great  part  of  her  life. 


THE    FAMILY    BONAPARTE    IN    1799  219 

"  She  was  very  ignorant — not  only  of  our  literature,  but  of  that  of  her  own 
country.  She  had,  however,  some  knowledge  of  the  usual  forms  of  society,  of 
which  she  had  seen  a  little  in  the  course  of  her  acquaintance  with  M.  de  Marbeuf, 
and  other  distinguished  men,  who  visited  much  at  her  house  at  the  time  of  the 
occupation  of  Corsica.  But  this  slight  knowledge  of  the  world  was  to  her 
rather  a  source  of  inconvenience  than  of  advantage,  inasmuch  as  it  put  her  in 
constant  dread  of  committing  some  blunder.  Her  haughtiness,  which  was  not 
offensive,  became  dignity  when  elevated  to  her  new  situation.  She  was  kind  at 
heart,  but  of  a  cold  exterior ;  she  was  possessed  of  much  good  sense,  but  of 
little  shrewdness  or  knowledge  of  the  world. 

"  She  was  a  very  good  mother,  and  her  children,  with  one  exception,  were 
good  to  her  in  turn.  They  treated  her  with  every  respect,  and  showed  her 
assiduous  attention.  Lucien  and  Joseph  were  particularly  attached  to  her.  As  for 
Napoleon,  he  was  not  so  respectful  and  attentive  to  his  mother  as  his  brothers 
were.  Madame  Bacciochi  (Marianne  Elise)  evinced  no  particular  regard  for  her 
mother.  But  for  whom  did  she  ever  show  regard  ?  I  always  thought  her  the 
most  disagreeable  woman  I  had  ever  met." 

The  same  writer  says  of  Joseph  the  eldest  (?)  son  :  "  Of  all  Bonaparte's 
brothers  none  have  been  so  erroneously  judged,  and  that  universally,  as  Joseph. 
.  .  .  He  is  one  of  the  most  admirable  men  that  can  be  met  with.  He  is  good- 
natured,  intelligent,  a  student  of  literature,  fond  of  retirement.  Much  has  been 
said  relative  to  the  weak  conduct  of  Joseph  at  Naples  and  in  Spain.  I  know  not 
what  he  did,  or  what  he  could  have  done  at  Naples  ;  but  I  do  know  that  in  Spain 
he  could  do  no  better,  because  he  went  there  against  his  inclination.  Joseph  is 
handsome,  very  like  the  Princess  Pauline.  They  both  have  the  same  delicate 
features,  the  same  winning  smile,  the  same  kind  look. 

"  Madame  Joseph  (Marie  Julie  Clary)  is  an  angel  of  goodness.  .  .  .  Never 
did  she  hesitate  a  moment  to  set  about  what  she  conceived  to  be  her  duty.  .  .  . 
Her  unalterable  kindness,  her  active  charity,  gain  her  the  love  of  everybody." 

To  Napoleon,  Joseph  showed  the  truest  fraternal  love  when  his  brother  was 
inindigent  circumstances,  which  he  was  able  to  do,  with  the  money  he  had  by  his 
wife.  He  was  an  amiable,  luxurious  man,  without  abilities.  In  1799,  he  pub- 
lished a  little  novel,  entitled  Moina,  but  it  showed  no  talent.  It  was  well  said  of 
Joseph,  that  in  him  was  the  material  for  making  a  good  legitimate  king,  but  none 
of  the  stuff  out  of  which  a  new  dynasty  can  be  formed. 

He  had  been  given  a  position  as  army  contractor  by  Napoleon,  on  false 
certificates,  and  in  1804  he  obtained  for  him  an  appointment  under  Soult, 
as  Colonel  of  the  4th  Regiment,  also  upon  false  statements,  hardly  necessary  at 
a  time  when  a  word  from  him  would  have  sufficed.  He  wrote  to  Soult  on  the 
14th  April,  1804  '■  "  I  send  you  my  brother  Joseph  ;  during  the  first  campaigns  of 
the  Revolution  he  served  as  major,"  he  accompanied  this  with  a  commission, 
stating  that  Joseph  had  been  artillery  cadet,  1768,  staff  officer  in  1793,  chef 
de  bataillon  in  the  same  year,  that  he  had  been  present  in  the  campaigns  of  1793 
and  1794,' and  that  he  had  been  wounded  at  the  siege  of  Toulon,  All  these 
statements  were  absolutely  false. 

But  that  was  not  enough.  In  a  message  to  the  Senate  on  the  i8th  April,  he 
had  the  impudence  to  declare,  what  probably  everyone  knew  was  a  lie :  "Having 
already  served  under  my  eyes  during  the  first  campaign  in  this  war,  and  having 


220        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

given  proofs  of  courage,  and  a  taste  for  a  career  of  arms,  I  have  appointed  the 
citizen,  Joseph  Bonaparte,  Colonel  of  the  4th  Regiment." 

Lucien  is  thus  described  by  Mme.  Junot :  "In  1797,  he  might  be  about 
twenty-two  years  of  age  ;  he  was  tall,  ill-shaped,  having  limbs  like  those  of  a 
daddy-longlegs,  and  a  small  head,  which,  with  his  tall  stature,  would  have 
made  him  unlike  his  brothers,  had  not  his  physiognomy  attested  their  common 
parentage.  Lucien  was  very  near-sighted,  which  made  him  half  shut  his  eyes 
and  stoop  his  head.  This  defect  would  have  given  him  an  unpleasing  air,  if  his 
smile,  always  in  harmony  with  his  features,  had  not  imparted  something  agree- 
able to  his  countenance.    Thus,  though  he  was  rather  plain,  he  pleased  generally." 

Lucien's  republicanism  was  probably  sincere,  and  though  he  strenuously  took 
his  brother's  part  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Directory,  and  the  expulsion  of  the 
Council  of  the  Five  Hundred,  yet  it  is  likely  that  he  then  had  no  idea  of  the 
reactionary  measures  that  Napoleon  intended  to  introduce,  and  when  Lucien 
saw  that  his  brother  was  bent  on  the  reintroduction  of  absolutism,  he  remon- 
strated with  him.  Lucien  married  a  small  innkeeper's  daughter  at  S.  Maximin. 
Her  name  was  Christine  Boyer.  When  Napoleon  heard  of  the  marriage,  he  was 
very  angry,  and  declared  that  he  would  never  see  the  wife,  and  never  meet  his 
brother  again.  However,  when  Lucien  was  elected  President  of  the  Council  of 
Five  Hundred,  Napoleon  thought  him  too  important  a  personage  for  him  to 
harbour  further  resentment. 

"  Madame  Lucien  was  tall,  well  shaped,  slender,  and  had  in  her  figure  and 
carriage  that  native  grace  and  ease  which  are  imparted  by  the  air  and  sky  of 
the  South ;  her  complexion  was  dark,  she  was  pitted  with  the  small-pox ;  her 
eyes  were  not  large,  and  her  nose  was  rather  broad  and  flat.  In  spite  of  all 
this  she  was  pleasing,  because  her  look  was  kind,  her  smile  sweet,  as  well  as  her 
voice.  She  was  graceful,  and  good  as  an  angel."  In  another  place,  Madame 
Junot  says :  "  She  had  in  her  a  profusion  of  kindness,  affection,  and  love.  I 
knew  her,  and  no  sooner  knew  than  loved  her.  Subsequently,  when  I  have 
seen  her  surrounded  by  the  halo  of  maternal  love,  new  treasures  of  tenderness 
manifested  themselves  in  her,  and  constrained  me  to  love  her  more  and  more." 

If  Lucien,  as  a  child  of  the  Republic,  had  imbibed  ardent  democratic 
sentiments,  he  had  also  that  rapacity  which  not  infrequently  goes  along  with 
the  same,  and  his  character  is  stained  by  his  greed  for  money,  howsoever 
obtained.  We  will  pass  over  Louis  and  Jerome,  as  they  had  not  at  this  time 
done  much  to  show  what  their  characters  were  ;  Louis  had,  indeed,  accompanied 
Napoleon  in  the  Italian  and  Egyptian  campaigns;  and  had  been  sent  home 
during  the  latter  with  despatches.  At  college  he  had  expressed  strong  anti- 
Republican  sentiments. 

The  eldest  of  the  sisters  of  Napoleon  was  Elise,  married  to  a  M.  Bacciochi. 
She  considered  herself  superior  in  every  respect  to  her  husband,  whom  she 
treated  contemptuously,  and  insulted  him  daily,  before  company.  She  had 
imbibed  from  her  brother  Lucien  a  taste  for  arts,  and  was  fond  of  literary 
society,  but  had  neither  the  mental  capacity  nor  acuteness  to  figure  respectably 
in  the  society  she  so  assiduously  cultivated.  Bacciochi  was,  indeed,  of  a  noble 
Corsican  family ;  but  nobility  meant  there  no  more  than  that  his  family  did  not 


THE    FAMILY    BONAPARTE    IN    1799  221 

belong  to  the  class  of  peasants  or  shopkeepers.  It  was,  in  fact,  in  every  way  on 
a  social  level  with  that  of  the  Bonapartes.  Napoleon  refused  consent  to  the 
marriage,  which,  however,  was  promoted  by  her  mother.  Elise,  to  her  ill-treat- 
ment of  her  husband,  added  infidelity.  One  of  the  least  objectionable  anecdotes 
told  of  her  relates  to  an  amour  she  had  with  a  strolling  player.  When  tired  of 
him,  she  obtained  for  him  the  dignity  of  Baron,  and  the  Prefecture  of  Leman. 

Ida  Saint-Elma  thus  describes  her  :  "  Elise  was  not  beautiful.  Small,  spare, 
almost  lean,  she  nevertheless  had  in  her  person  certain  agreeable  features,  and 
she  had  imagination  and  tact  to  make  her  a  very  seductive  woman.  Her 
distinguished  figure  gave  her  the  air  of  being  well  built,  for  there  was  grace  in 
all  her  movements,  mingled  with  dignity.  She  had  small  feet.  Her  hands 
were  like  those  of  her  brother.  The  most  beautiful  black  eyes  animated  her 
countenance,  and  she  knew  how  to  use  them  so  as  to  command  or  to  please. 
Of  all  her  brothers  and  sisters,  none  more  nearly  resembled  Napoleon  than  his 
sister  Elise.  She  had  a  lively,  prompt,  and  penetrating  wit,  an  ardent  imagina- 
tion, strength  of  mind,  and  the  instinct  of  grandeur."* 

Pauline,  the  second  sister,  and  the  loveliest  of  all,  had  many  admirers. 
Junot  first  fell  in  love  with  her ;  then  Freron  and  she  went  madly  in  love  with 
each  other.  Bonaparte  did  what  was  the  right  thing,  in  refusing  to  allow  his 
sister  to  marry  a  fellow  who  was  not  only  a  regicide,  but  had  directed  the 
executions  at  Marseilles.  Barras  says  that  the  real  bar  to  the  union  was  that 
Freron's  legitimate  wife  turned  up  inopportunely.  It  is  possible  enough  that 
such  a  wife  did  appear,  but  this  was  not  the  cause  of  the  engagement  being 
broken  off.  That  was  the  strong  distaste  Napoleon  had  for  an  alliance  with 
a  blood-stained  ruffian  such  as  Freron.  He  loathed  such  men.  He  had  seen 
•enough  of  them,  when  he  was  himself  one  of  Robespierre's  party,  to  know  that 
they  were  as  mean,  vile,  and  treacherous,  as  they  were  cruel. 

Pauline  married  General  Leclerc,  a  man  she  never  liked. 

Pauline  was  not  one  to  feel  anything  acutely,  except  being  badly  dressed. 
It  was  she  who,  when  asked  whether  she  did  not  feel  uncomfortable  when  she 
sat  naked  to  be  modelled  by  Canova,  answered,  "  Oh,  dear  me,  no  !  The  room 
was  warmed."  Leclerc  was  appointed  to  head  an  expedition  to  S.  Domingo, 
and  she  refused  to  accompany  him ;  then,  by  command  of  her  brother,  she 
was  forcibly  carried  on  board,  and  thus  compelled  to  go.  To  her  great  joy, 
Leclerc  fell  a  victim  to  the  climate,  and  the  beautiful  widow  returned  to  the 
'dissipations  of  Paris,  where  her  conduct  was  such  as  to  provoke  great  scandal. 

Mme.  Junot  says  of  Pauline :  "  We  saw  more  of  her  than  of  any  other  of 
the  family.  She  came  every  day  to  my  mother,  who  was  very  fond  of  her,  and 
petted  her,  by  passing  over  with  more  indulgence  than  her  mother  the  thousand- 
and-one  whims  which  were  bred,  gratified,  and  abandoned  in  a  day.  She  was 
fresh  on  her  arrival  at  Paris  from  Milan;  but  this  freshness  was  of  short 
-duration.  By  the  time  she  had  lived  a  year  in  Paris,  she  began  to  be  a  very 
•different  person  from  the  Paulette  of  Milan." 

*  M&moires  d'zme  Contemporaine.  Ida  Saint-EIma  was  an  actress,  who  lived  with  Moreau  as  his  wife, 
"had  a  brief  connection  with  Napoleon,  and  was  desperately  in  love  with  Ney,  with  whom  she  lived  for  a 
while.  She  marched  in  male  attire  in  the  Russian  campaign.  She  was  appointed  by  Napoleon  companion 
.and  reader  to  his  sister  Elise.     A  new  edition  of  her  curious  autobiography  has  been  recently  published. 


222        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

In  another  place,  Madame  Junot  gives  a  delightful  picture  and  anecdote 
of  her. 

"  Bonaparte  had  just  departed  for  Egypt ;  and  the  different  members  of  his 
family,  bright  with  the  reflection  of  the  glory  he  had  cast  upon  them  during  his 
brief  stay  in  Paris,  had  already  commenced  their  noviciate  of  royalty.  Madame 
Leclerc,  who  had  a  taste  for  absolute  power,  was  nothing  loth  to  unite  the 
influence  of  her  brother's  reputation  to  that  of  her  own  beauty.  That  beauty, 
indeed,  appeared  so  perfect  that  nobody  thought  of  disputing  it.  As  her 
dominion  as  yet  consisted  only  of  her  beauty,  she  spared  no  pains  to  make  the 
most  of  it,  and  in  this  she  succeeded,  when  she  did  not,  as  unfortunately  too 
often  happened,  display  the  airs  of  an  insufferably  spoiled  child.  One  evening, 
my  mother  gave  a  ball  at  her  residence.  .  .  .  Madame  Leclerc  informed  us  that 
she  had  prepared  for  the  occasion  a  dress  which,  to  use  her  own  expression,  she 
expected  would  immortalise  her.  .  .  .  Only  those  who  knew  Madame  Leclerc 
can  form  any  idea  of  the  impression  she  produced  on  entering  my  mother's 
drawing-room.  The  head-dress  consisted  of  bandelettes  of  a  very  soft,  fine  kind 
of  fur,  of  a  striped  pattern.  These  bandelettes  were  surmounted  by  bunches  of 
grapes  in  gold.  She  was  a  faithful  copy  of  a  Bacchante,  such  as  are  seen  in 
antique  statues  or  cameos ;  and,  in  truth,  the  form  of  Madame  Leclerc's  head, 
and  the  classic  regularity  of  her  features,  emboldened  her  to  attempt  an 
imitation  which  would  have  been  hazardous  in  most  women.  Her  robe,  of 
exquisitely  fine  Indian  muslin,  had  a  deep  bordering  of  gold  ;  the  pattern  was 
of  grapes  and  vine-leaves.  With  this  she  wore  a  tunic  of  the  purest  Greek 
form,  with  a  bordering  similar  to  her  dress,  which  displayed  her  fine  figure  to 
advantage.  This  tunic  was  confined  on  the  shoulders  by  cameos  of  great 
value.  The  sleeves,  which  were  very  short,  were  lightly  gathered  on  small 
bands,  which  were  also  fastened  with  cameos.  Her  girdle,  which  was  placed 
below  her  bosom,  as  is  seen  in  the  Greek  statues,  consisted  of  a  gold  band,  the 
clasp  of  which  was  a  superbly  cut  antique  stone.  She  entered  the  drawing-room 
without  her  gloves,  displaying  her  beautiful  round  arms,  which  were  adorned 
with  bracelets  formed  of  gold  and  cameos.  It  is  impossible  to  describe  the 
effect  her  appearance  produced.  Her  entrance  seemed  absolutely  to  illumine 
the  room.  The  perfect  harmony  in  every  part  of  the  beautiful  whole  elicited 
a  buzz  of  admiration,  which  was  not  complimentary  to  the  other  ladies  present. 
.  .  .  They  whispered,  loud  enough  to  be  heard  by  Paulette,  that  such  an  impru- 
dent display  was  exceedingly  unbecoming  in  a  woman  who  had  been  almost 
in  starvation  only  three  years  before.  But  their  expressions  of  feminine  spite 
were  speedily  drowned  by  the  outspoken  admiration  of  the  other  sex. 

"  The  beauty  of  Madame  de  Contades  was  now  entirely  eclipsed,  and  she 
found  herself  abandoned  by  her  circle  of  admirers.  '  Give  me  your  arm,'  she 
said  to  a  gentleman  near  her  ;  and  next  moment  the  Diana-like  figure  of 
Madame  de  Contades  was  seen  sailing  across  the  drawing-room,  and  advancing 
towards  Madame  Leclerc. 

"  The  latter  had  withdrawn  to  my  mother's  boudoir,  because,  she  said,  the 
heat  of  the  drawing-room  made  her  ill  ;  though  I  believe  the  true  reason  was,, 
that  a  long  sofa  in  the  boudoir  afforded  her  the  opportunity^  of  displaying  her 
graceful  figure  and  attitudes  to  the  best  advantage. 

"  This  manoeuvre,  however,  proved  unlucky.  The  room  was  small,  and 
brilliantly  lighted  ;  and  as  Madame  Leclerc  reclined  upon  the  sofa,  a  stream  of 
light  descended  full  on  her  head. 

"  Madame  de  Contades  looked  at  her  attentively,  and,  instead  of  making 
any  ill-natured  observations,  she  first  admired  the  dress,  then  the  figure,  lastly  the 


THE    FAMILY    BONAPARTE    IN    1799  223 

face.  Then,  turning  to  the  gentleman  on  whose  arm  she  was  leaning,  she 
exclaimed,  '  Ah !  mon  Dieu  !  mon  Dieu !  how  unfortunate  that  such  a  pretty 
woman  should  be  deformed  !  Observe  the  enormous  ears  which  disfigure  her 
head  !     There  can  be  no  harm  in  advising  a  woman  to  have  her  ears  shorn  off.' 

"  All  eyes  were  now  turned  towards  Madame  Leclerc's  head.  In  truth, 
Nature  must  have  been  in  one  of  her  most  capricious  moods  when  she  placed 
two  such  ears  on  the  right  and  left  of  a  charming  face.  They  were  merely 
pieces  of  thin,  white  cartilage,  almost  without  a  curve  ;  but  this  cartilage  was 
not  enormous,  only  ugly. 

"  The  result  of  this  little  scene  was  that  Pauline  burst  into  tears,  and,  on  a 
plea  of  indisposition,  retired." 

The  third  sister  of  Napoleon,  Caroline,  was  born  on  March  26th,  1782.  She 
was  ambitious,  had  more  ability  than  her  sisters,  and  was,  what  her  sisters  were 
not,  respectable  in  her  morals.     She  was  married  by  Napoleon  to  Murat. 

Madame  Junot  writes  of  her  : — 

"  Caroline  Bonaparte  was  a  very  pretty  girl,  fresh  as  a  rose  ;  not  to  be 
compared,  for  regularity  of  features,  with  Madame  Leclerc,  though  more 
pleasing,  perhaps,  by  the  expression  of  her  countenance  and  the  brilliancy  of 
her  complexion,  but  by  no  means  possessing  the  perfection  of  figure  which 
distinguished  her  elder  sister.  Her  head  was  disproportionately  large,  her  bust 
was  too  short,  her  shoulders  were  too  round,  and  her  hips  too  projecting  ;  but  her 
feet,  her  hands,  and  her  arms  were  models,  and  her  skin  resembled  white  satin  seen 
through  pink  glass;  her  teeth  were  very  fine,  as  were  those  of  all  the  Bonapartes  ; 
her  hair  was  light,  but  in  no  way  remarkable.  As  a  young  girl,  Caroline  was 
charming.  When  her  mother  first  brought  her  to  Paris,  in  1798,  her  beauty  was 
in  all  its  rosy  freshness.  I  have  never  seen  her  appear  to  so  much  advantage 
since.  Magnificence  did  not  become  her  ;  brocade  did  not  hang  well  upon  her 
figure ;  and  one  feared  to  see  her  delicate  complexion  fade  under  the  weight  of 
diamonds  and  rubies.  .  .  .  Caroline  Bonaparte  married  with  a  reputation  as  pure 
and  fresh  as  her  complexion  and  the  roses  of  her  cheeks." 

"  She  has  the  head  of  Cromwell  on  the  shoulders  of  a  pretty  woman,"  said 
Talleyrand. 

Her  pride  and  ambition  were  intense.  She  could  not  quite  forgive  her 
husband  for  being  a  little  taverner's  son  ;  and  she  bitterly  resented  having  to 
address  the  soap-boiler's  daughter  as  "  Your  Majesty,"  when  Joseph  was  made 
King  of  Spain. 

Napoleon  is  related  then  to  have  said  mischievously  to  her : — 

"Caroline,  one  would  really  suppose,  from  your  haughtiness,  that  I  had 
deprived  you  of  your  succession  to  the  throne  of  the  late  King,  your  father." 

There  were  points  in  the  characters  of  all  the  brothers  and  sisters  that  were 
united  in  Napoleon.  He  had  the  love  of  art  and  literature  that  distinguished 
Joseph  and  Lucien,  the  stubbornness  of  the  latter,  the  shiftiness  of  Jerome,  the 
pride  of  Caroline,  and  the  moral  laxity  of  Jerome  and  Pauline. 


NAPOLEON    NOMINATED    FIRST    CONSUL. 
By  Appiani. 


XXIX 


THE    CONSULATE 


(1800) 


nr^HE  Jacobins,  the  Moderates,  the  Royalists,  had  all  hoped  that  Napoleon 
-■-  would  have  pulled  the  nuts  out  of  the  fire  for  them  on  the  i8th  Brumaire, 
and  all  were  equally  disappointed.  The  Jacobins,  who  had  given  a  hand  to 
Bonaparte,  had  lifted  into  the  saddle  a  man  who  was  resolved  to  put  the  bit  in 
their  mouths.  The  Constitutionals  were  speedily  to  discover  that  he  aimed  at 
the  destruction  of  every  element  of  Constitutionalism  ;  and  the  Royalists  to 
learn  that  they  had  indefinitely  postponed  the  chances  of  a  Bourbon  restoration. 
As  George  Cadoudal  said  later :  "  In  striving  to  enthrone  a  King,  we  have 
exceeded  our  expectations,  we  have  given  to  France  an  Emperor." 

The  daring,  irreverent  soldier,  who  had  no  thought  of  confining  his  energies 
to  the  military  department,  as  the  civilians  who  worked  with  him  had  fondly 
hoped,  took  up  the  Constitutional  scheme  of  Sieyes,  clipped  and  altered  it,  until 
it  was  no  longer  recognisable.  The  author,  Sieyes,  was  dismissed,  Roger-Ducos 
followed  him,  and  three  Consuls  were  elected  to  serve  for  ten  years.  Of  these, 
naturally,  Bonaparte  was  the  first,  and  his  coadjutors  were  Cambaceres  and 
Lebrun,  but  all  prerogative  centred  in  the  First  Consul. 

The  Constitution  of  Sieyes  pleased  Bonaparte  in  some  of  its  provisions. 
The  suppression  of  the  popular  suffrage,  or,  rather,  the  rendering  it  powerless, 
by  means  of  the  lists  of  notabilities,  was  an  ingenious  and  practical  scheme  that 
he  readily  adopted. 

As  finally  promulgated  on  the  24th  December,  the  Constitution  of  the  year 
VIII.  established  three  Consuls,  or  a  First  Consul,  and  two  who  were  inferior, 

224 


THE    CONSULATE  225 

and  had  a  deliberative  voice,  while  the  Chief  Consul  exercised  the  supreme  power. 

He  alone  had  the  executive  and  legislative  initiative,  for  the  Council  of  State 

charged  with  drawing  up  of  laws  was  named  by  him,  except  the  Court   of 

Cassation  and  the  Juges  de  Paix.     At  the  same  time  he  was  in  command  of 

the  army.     The  whole  of  France  was  covered  with  a  network  of  officials,  all 

deriving   jurisdiction    from   the    Chief   Consul,  and    looking   to   him   for  their 

salaries.     After  the   Consuls  came  a   Senate,  composed   of  eighty  members, 

appointed   for  life,  and  enjoying  high  salaries,  all  nominated  by  the  Consuls 

Next  came  a  Legislative  Body,  of  three  hundred  members,  one-fifth  of  whom 

were  to  be  annually  renewed.     Lastly,  a  Tribunate  was  instituted,  of  a  hundred 

members.     The  Legislative  and  Tribunate  bodies  were  selected  by  the  Senate, 

out  of  the  lists  of  candidates  presented  by  the  electoral 

colleges.      Popular  representation   was   maimed,  but  in 

such  a   manner  as  to  escape  the  observation  of  the 

people.     Every  person  above  the  age  of  twenty-one, 

born  and  residing  in  France,  was  declared  to  be  a 

citizen,  but  certain  exceptions  were  made.      The 

citizens  of  each   arrondissement   chose   a   certain 

number  by  their  suffrages — a  tenth.      Those  thus 

elected  were  alone  eligible  to  official  situations  in 

this  circle.    The  citizens  in  this  first  list  again  elected 

a  tenth   of  their   number,  for  each   department,  and 

such  as  were  thus  chosen  were  alone  eligible  for  depart-        ^j^^  thre;e  consuls. 

mental  situations.     The  citizens  chosen  by  this  second      a  silver  medai  by  catteaux. 

list    again    elected    a   tenth   of  their    number,    which  "^ 

formed  the  body  alone  capable  of  furnishing  candidates  for  national  offices. 

By  this  means  a  bureaucracy  was  formed  of  six  thousand  persons  alone 
eligible  to  public  offices,  and  of  functionaries  of  a  lower  grade,  as  prefects  and 
departmental  judges. 

The  nominations  came  from  the  Consuls,  and  all  members  of  the  Legislature 
received  payment  from  the  Government ;  those  of  the  Senate  were  recipients  of 
25,000  francs  a  year,  those  of  the  Tribunate  received  15,000  francs,  and  those 
•of  the  Legislative  body  10,000  francs  per  annum. 

When  a  bill  had  been  considered  behind  closed  doors  by  the  Senate,  it  was 
submitted  to  the  Tribunes,  who  debated  on  it  in  public,  but  did  not  vote,  and 
then  the  Legislative  Body  received  the  bill,  and  voted  thereon  without  debate. 

The  whole  of  the  executive  arid  legislative  power  was  thus  practically 
placed  in  the  hands  of  one  man.  "  What  would  you  have,"  said  Bonaparte, 
w^hen  excusing  the  exorbitant  powers  assumed  by  him  as  First  Consul ;  "  Sieyes 
had  placed  shadows  everywhere,  a  shadow  of  legislative  power,  a  shadow  of 
government ;  it  was  necessary  to  place  substance  somewhere,  and,  on  my  word, 
I  placed  it  there." 

Later  on  he  said :   "  I  was  convinced  that  France  could  not  exist  except 
under  a  monarchical  form  of  government ;  but  the  circumstances  of  the  time 
were  such  that  it  was  really  thought  necessary,  and  perhaps  it  really  was  so — to 
Q 


226        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

disguise  the  supreme  power  of  the  President."     Or,  as  he  more  brutally  put  it 
another  time,  "  In  the  end  you  must  come  to  the  government  of  boots  and  spurs." 

When  the  Constitution  of  the  year  VIII.  was  presented  to  the  French,  it  was 
accompanied  by  a  proclamation  that  declared  its  incomparable  advantages,  as 
"founded  on  the  true  principles  of  representative  government,  on  the  sacred, 
rights  of"  property,  of  liberty,  and  of  equality ;  it  guaranteed  the  rights  of  citi- 
zens, and  the  interests  of  the  State."  And  it  concluded  with  the  peroration  : 
"  Citizens,  the  Revolution  is  rooted  in  the  principles  out  of  which  it  sprang.  It 
is  now  complete." 

Thus  was  reached  the  final  stage  of  the  long  struggle  between  Executive 
and  Legislative.  Their  relations  were  now  much  as  they  had  been  under  Louis 
XVI.  in  '89. 

The  Constitution  was  accepted  almost  unanimously.  It  seemed  to  the 
electors  to  afford  them  a  guarantee  that  they  had  come  to  an  end  of  a  night- 
mare of  blood,  and  that  they  might  now  hope  for  a  purification  of  the  corruption 
bred  in  every  part  of  the  Republican  Administration. 

The  first  necessity  of  Napoleon  was  money.  He  found  in  the  Treasury  but 
137,000  francs,  the  finances  were  in  confusion,  and  the  Administration  heavily  in 
debt. 

" Bourrienne,"  said  the  First  Consul,  "can  you  imagine  anything  more  piti- 
able than  the  system  of  finance  of  the  Directors?  Can  it  be  doubted  for  a 
moment  that  the  principal  agents  of  authority  daily  committed  the  most  fraudu- 
lent speculations?  What  venality  I  What  disorder!  What  wastefulness! 
everything  put  up  for  sale :  places,  provisions,  clothing,  and  the  military,  all 
were  disposed  of.  Have  they  not  actually  consumed  75,000,000  francs 
(;^48o,ooo)  in  advance?  And  then,  look  at  the  scandalous  fortunes  accumu- 
lated, all  the  malversations  of  which  they  have  been  guilty." 

To  meet  immediate  necessities  he  obtained  a  loan  of  twelve  millions  from 
the  bankers  of  Paris ;  and  then  looked  over  the  frontier  to  see  what  might  be 
done  by  squeezing  such  States  as  were  too  feeble  to  resist  the  attempt. 

First  came  Genoa.  "  The  signors  of  Genoa,"  said  he  to  Talleyrand,  "  have 
already  paid  a  good  deal,  but  the  shopkeepers  have  not  been  overcharged.  Let 
the  Minister  of  Finance  understand  .  .  .  that  General  Massena  will  be  em- 
powered to  raise  a  contribution  from  the  principal  merchants,  as  he  has  done  in 
Switzerland."     (iSth  December,  1799.) 

Next  came  Holland.  French  troops  had  been  sent  there  to  protect  the 
young  Republic  of  Batavia  from  England ;  not  that  Holland  had  solicited 
assistance,  it  had  been  imposed  on  her.  The  great  bulk  of  these  were  now^ 
removed  and  sent  into  La  Vendee  to  quell  the  rising  there,  but  Holland  was 
required  still  to  find  money  for  their  support  and  their  pay,  as  when  in  the  land,, 
and  the  pretence  was  that  they  had  been  sent  to  defend  the  line  of  the  Rhine. 
More  than  that.  Flushing  had  been  occupied  by  French  troops  on  the  invasion 
of  the  Low  Countries,  and  Napoleon  refused  to  restore  it  under  less  than 
;^i, 600,000;  and  he  further  demanded  of  the  Amsterdam  merchants  a  loan  of 
about  i^400,ooo.     (8th  March,  1800.) 


I 


THE    FIRST   CONSUL   AT   MALMAISON. 
By  J.   B.   Isabey. 


^        OF  THE 

NIVEBSITY 

OF 
^L|F05! 


THE    CONSULATE  229 

Then  came  the  turn  of  Hamburg,  which  had  surrendered  to  the  English  a 
couple  of  Irish  traitors  who  had  first  taken  refuge  in  France.  For  this,  the  free 
town  was  summoned  to  pay  from  ;^  16,000  to  ;^24,ooo.  The  Hanseatic  town 
was  constrained  to  submit,  but  the  money  never  went  into  the  Treasury.  A 
portion  was  employed  for  the  discharge  of  Josephine's  debts  to  her  milliner, 
saddler,  and  dressmaker ;  another  portion  to  pay  for  her  summer  residence  of 
Malmaison,  and  the  rest  was  dispersed  in  presents. 

Next  to  feel  the  pressure  of  the  First  Consul's  hand  were  Switzerland  and 
Portugal.  The  former  was,  however,  so  exhausted  that  little  could  be  drained 
from  it.  "  If  it  be  true,"  he  wrote  to  Talleyrand,  "that  between  eight  and  nine 
millions  of  francs  can  be  drawn  from  Portugal,  that  will  be  of  great  importance, 
for  this  sum  employed  on  the  Army  of  Italy  will  give  us  thirty  more  probabili- 
ties of  success  over  a  hundred."     (13th  January,  1801.) 

This  process  of  putting  foreign  States  into  the  oil-press  was  a  continuation  of 
the  method  adopted  when  Napoleon  had  entered  Italy ;  but  it  was  now  carried 
further.  Italy  had  been  constrained  to  pay  the  cost  of  the  army  that  invaded  it; 
now  one  State  had  to  furnish  part  of  the  expenses  of  a  campaign  carried  on 
against  another,  with  which  it  had  no  quarrel. 

The  task  of  reorganising  the  finances  was  one  to  which  Bonaparte  most 
seriously  directed  his  attention.  The  unblushing  peculations  practised  by  all 
officials  and  contractors  under  the  Republic  had  been  notorious,  and  till  this 
cancer  was  removed  the  confidence  of  the  nation  in  the  First  Consul  could  not 
be  rendered  complete.  He  accordingly  set  to  work  to  expose,  and  to  force  to 
disgorge,  the  worst  offenders,  to  thrust  them  from  their  situations,  and  to  supply 
their  places  with  men  of  probity.*  To  secure  such  men,  he  was  ready  to  accept 
Royalists  and  Constitutionals,  and  even  an  honest  Jacobin,  if  one  such  could  be 
found. 

The  system  of  revolutionary  finance  had  been  paralysed  by  the  reckless  over- 
issue of  paper  money  ;  and  this,  combined  with  the  greed  of  the  bankers  and 
contractors,  had  brought  the  finances  into  a  pitiable  condition.  To  restore 
order  and  confidence,  Bonaparte  called  in  the  help  of  two  expert  financiers  of 
great  probity,  Gaudin  and  Mollien.  The  Bank  of  France  was  created  as  a 
private  establishment,  under  the  surveillance  of  the  State,  the  issue  of  paper  was 
limited,  and  its  value  fixed  by  law.  By  degrees  public  confidence  returned,  and. 
the  finances  were  placed  on  a  stable  footing.  So  in  all  departments,  the  energy, 
the  resolution  of  Bonaparte  produced  good  effects;  as  in  the  army  he  had  chosen 
able  men  to  be  his  officers,  so  did  he  also  in  every  department  of  the  State. 

He  impressed  on  all  his  agents  a  holy  terror  of  his  person.  "  C'est  un  diable," 
said  Beugnot.  His  paramount  ability  brought  into  place,  and  galvanized  into 
utility,  men  who  had  hitherto  been  nullities.  As  Roederer  said,  "  Men,  hitherto 
judged  to  be  incapables,  became  all  at  once  useful.  On  the  other  hand,  men 
who  had  been  supposed  to  be  of  prime  necessity  in  the  State,  were  reduced  to 
uselessness,  and  all  ambitious  spirits  were  forced  to  be  content  to  strive  to  gain 
a  reflection  of  his  glory." 

Napoleon  had  a  difficult  part  to  play  in  the  face  of  the  several  factions  in 


230        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Paris,  but  he  played  it  with  consummate  address.  To  the  Royalists  he  pointed 
out  that  the  Jacobins  were  still  powerful  and  active,  and  were  plotting  for  a  revival 
of  the  Reign  of  Terror.  To  the  Jacobins  he  addressed  himself  in  another  tone. 
He  magnified  to  them  the  extent  to  which  the  counter-revolution  was  working, 
and  the  number  of  adherents  it  had  throughout  the  west  and  south  of  France ; 
and  thus  he  got  each  of  these  mutually  antagonistic  factions  to  support  him  as  a 
means  of  holding  down  the  other.  The  Constitutionals,  moreover,  welcomed 
him  as  having  introduced  an  element  of  strength  and  permanence  into  the 
Republic,  which  saved  it  from  succumbing  to  the  intrigues  of  Jacobins  and 
Royalists,  and  assured  them  that,  with  a  strong  hand,  he  would  hold  both 
down. 

France  was  weary  of  war,  and  Napoleon,  who  knew  that  to  establish  himself 
permanently  he  must  have  war,  contrived,  cleverly  enough,  to  obtain  what  he 
desired,  whilst  throwing  the  onus  of  provoking  war  on  others.  In  defiance  of 
all  international  etiquette,  he  wrote  personally  to  the  King  of  England  and  to 
the  Emperor,  making  great  profession  of  desire  for  tranquillity,  and  inviting  a 
consideration  of  terms  of  peace. 

But  the  Austrian  Government  could  not  endure  its  humiliation.  That  of 
England  could  not  believe  in  the  stability  of  the  new  Constitution,  and  it 
declined  to  treat  with  the  First  Consul  unless  he  would  abandon  the  system  of 
unprovoked  aggression  from  which  Italy,  Holland,  Switzerland,  and  Egypt  had 
suffered.  It  mistrusted  the  velvet  glove,  and  saw  that  it  concealed  an  iron 
hand. 

The  character  and  position  of  Bonaparte  precluded  the  hope  of  an  honour- 
able and  lasting  peace.  In  treating  with  him,  the  most  that  could  be  expected 
was  a  hollow  truce  of  some  twelve  or  eighteen  months'  duration. 

Napoleon  had  gained  all  he  desired  in  throwing  on  his  adversaries  the 
odium  of  recommencing  the  war ;  he  could  pose  before  France  as  one  who  had 
sought  peace  and  had  met  with  a  rebuff,  insulting  to  the  majority  of  the  French 
people. 

In  Italy,  Massena  the  Jew — his  real  name  was  Manasseh — commanded  the 
French  troops  in  occupation,  and  there  "  behaved  in  such  a  way,"  as  Miot  de 
Melito  informs  us,  "that  the  French  troops,  left  without  pay  in  the  midst  of 
the  immense  riches  which  he  appropriated,  revolted,  and  refused  to  recognise 
his  authority.  His  pilferings,  his  shameless  avidity,  tarnished  the  laurels  with 
which  he  had  covered  himself"  But  he  was  an  able  general,  and  Napoleon 
needed  him.  He  sent  him  instructions  to  fall  back  on  and  hold  Genoa,  till 
relieved. 

In  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Rhine  was  Moreau,  an  able  general  also,  and 
upright.  He  was  to  hold  in  check  the  Austrian  army  under  Kray,  which 
occupied  the  elevated  tableland  of  the  Black  Forest.  In  Italy,  the  Austrians, 
117,000  strong,  were  commanded  by  Melas,  and  threatened  to  sweep  the 
French,  25,000  in  number,  into  the  sea. 

Napoleon  rapidly  organised  an  army  of  reserve  in  such  a  manner,  dispersed 
through  the  country,  that  its  existence  was  unsuspected  by  the  enemy.     By  his 


THE    CONSULATE  231 

cunning  he  entirely  deceived  the  enemy  as  to  its  size,  and  as  to  his  intentions. 
He  announced  Dijon  as  place  of  assembly  of  the  army  of  reserve,  and  actually 
collected  there  but  a  few  battalions  of  raw  conscripts  ;  whilst  the  real  force  was 
gathered  elsewhere.  As  soon  as  this  army  was  ready,  he  brought  it  together  af 
Lausanne.  In  the  meantime,  Moreau  had  beaten  Kray  in  five  engagements, 
and  had  driven  him  back  upon  Ulm,  with  the  loss  of  30,000  men.  If  he  had  been 
permitted,  he  would  have  pushed  on  to  the  gates  of  Vienna.  But  this  was  not 
what  Bonaparte  purposed.  He  and  he  alone  was  to  reap  the  fruits  of  victory. 
He  therefore  ordered  Moreau  to  detach  25,000  men  from  his  army  to  join  the 
army  of  the  reserve,  which  he  himself  commanded,  and  to  keep  Kray  amused, 
but  on  no  account  to  extend  operations  beyond  the  right  bank  of  the  Danube. 

On  the  13th  May,  1800,  the  First  Consul  appeared  at  Lausanne,  and 
prepared  to  march  over  the  S.  Bernard  Pass,  so  as  to  fall  on  the  rear  of  Melas, 
who  had  not  the  remotest  idea  that  an  army  was  in  movement  in  Switzerland, 
with  the  greatest  general  of  the  day  at  its  head,  ready  to  swoop  down  upon  him. 

The  passage  of  the  great  S.  Bernard  was  attended  with  difficulty.  The 
cannons  were  dismounted,  put  into  the  hollowed  trunks  of  trees,  and  dragged 
by  the  soldiers  ;  the  carriages  were  taken  to  pieces,  and  conveyed  over  the 
mountain  on  the  backs  of  mules,  or,  hung  upon  poles,  were  borne  on  men's 
shoulders. 

On  the  1 6th  May,  Bonaparte's  vanguard,  under  Lannes,  descended  the 
Alps  into  the  beautiful  valley  of  Aosta,  closely  followed  by  the  other  divisions. 
On  the  17th,  Lannes  drove  in  a  detachment  of  Austrians,  who  were  as  much 
astonished  at  the  appearance  of  the  French  in  that  quarter  as  if  the  enemy  had 
descended  from  the  clouds. 

On  the  2nd  of  June,  Bonaparte  entered  Milan  without  any  opposition.  On 
the  5th  of  June,  after  the  soldiers  had  eaten  their  boots,  and  the  leather  of  their 
knapsacks,  Massena  surrendered  Genoa  ;  but  more  than  a  week  before  that, 
Melas,  made  aware  of  the  arrival  of  Bonaparte  at  the  head  of  an  army  in  the 
plains  of  North  Italy,  divided  his  forces,  and  leaving  a  portion  to  mask  Genoa, 
faced  round,  and  marched  to  meet  him.  An  encounter  took  place  at  Marengo, 
on  the  4th  of  June,  and  Napoleon  had  his  centre  broken,  and  would  have  been 
completely  routed  but  for  the  opportune  arrival  of  Dessaix,  who  had  been  de- 
spatched by  him  to  reconnoitre  in  the  direction  of  Novi,  and  of  Kellermann  at 
the  head  of  500  heavy  cavalry.  Dessaix  fell,  shot  through  the  heart.  The 
Austrians  were  thrown  into  a  panic  that  resulted  in  a  complete  rout. 

Baron  Melas  lacked  ability  and  firmness.  After  his  defeat,  when  he  came 
to  negotiate,  it  seemed  as  if  his  eighty-four  years  had  reduced  him  to  second 
childhood.  By  the  armistice  concluded  on  the  i6th  June,  the  Austrians  sur- 
rendered Piedmont  and  the  Genoese  territory,  with  all  their  fortresses,  including 
Alessandria,  which  might  have  stood  a  long  siege,  and  the  impregnable  Genoa, 
which  had  only  opened  its  gates  to  the  Austrians  eleven  days  before.  The 
French  were  to  keep  Lombardy  as  far  as  the  river  Oglio.  In  return  for  these 
sacrifices,  Melas  was  allowed  to  withdraw  his  forces  to  the  line  of  Mantua  and 
the  Mincio. 


232        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


BONAPARTE     AT     MARENGO. 
From  a  contemporary  engraving. 

It  will  be  advisable  to  look  a  little  closer  at  the  conduct  of  Napoleon  at  this 
/period,  as  it  is  singularly  characteristic.  In  the  first  place,  he  had  no  legal 
/right  to  the  command  of  the  army. 

As  he  himself  admitted  :  "  The  principles  of  the  Constitution  did  not  allow 
I  the  First  Consul  to  undertake  the  command."  He  got  over  this  difficulty  by 
an  equivocation.  The  law  did  not  forbid  his  presence,  and  he  appointed 
Berthier  nominal  Commander-in-Chief.  The  plan  he  had  formed  was  to 
separate  the  two  Austrian  armies  of  Melas  and  Kray,  and  fall  on  the  rear  of 
the  former,  so  as  to  force  him  to  abandon  the  siege  of  Genoa,  and  relieve 
Massena.  He  might  have  effected  this  latter  purpose,  as  in  '96,  by  an  advance 
along  the  coast  road  and  the  passes  of  the  Maritime  Alps ;  but  this  would  not 
serve  his  purpose  of  striking  a  great  coup  de  theatre,  to  surprise  the  imagination 
of  Europe.  He  accordingly  crossed  the  Great  S.  Bernard,  whilst  two  other 
divisions  surmounted  the  Little  S.  Bernard  and  the  S.  Gothard.  The  labours 
and  perils  of  this  passage  have  been  magnified,  so  as  to  enhance  the  wonder,, 
that  the  world  might  applaud.  Then,  on  reaching  the  Italian  plains,  instead 
of  hastening  to  the  relief  of  Massena,  he  loitered  at  Milan  for  a  fortnight.  He 
had  despatched  an  aide-de-camp  to  Massena  on  the  20th  May,  to  promise  him 
immediate  help,  yet,  instead  of  marching  directly  to  his  assistance,  he  turned 
aside  to  Milan,  where  he  was  received  with  an  ovation,  and  wasted  precious 
time  listening  to  concerts.  Not  only  were  the  gallant  French  soldiers  in  Genoa 
starving,  but  the  population  of  the  town  were  dying  in  thousands.  Massena 
did  not  surrender  till  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  hold  out  another  day,  and 


THE    CONSULATE 


2Z2> 


till  he  believed  that  the  army  marching  to  his  relief  had  been  beaten.  After- 
wards, to  palliate  his  inactivity,  Napoleon  gave  circulation  to  a  number  of 
charges  against  the  gallant  general,  and  threw  on  him  the  blame  of  the  sur- 
render. Bonaparte  no  doubt  had  calculated  on  Melas  at  once  abandoning 
Genoa  to  protect  his  communications.  Genoa  had  served  his  purpose  in  detain- 
ing Melas  whilst  he  crossed  the  Alps.  But  for  this  he  might  have  been  beaten 
in  detail,  as  Alvinzi  had  been.  When  too  late  to  be  of  any  use,  then,  and  then 
only,  did  Bonaparte  march  against  Melas.  He  disposed  his  troops  in  masterly 
fashion  at  Stradella,  and  awaited  Melas  there  from  the   loth  to  the  I2th  of 


BATTLE   OF    MARENGO. 
From  an  engraving  by  Chaffard. 

June,  a  prey  to  the  greatest  uneasiness,  as  he  did  not  know  where  the  Austrians 
were.  Then  he  abandoned  his  position,  which  was  almost  impregnable,  and 
advanced  into  the  plain  along  the  road  to'J Alessandria.  Still  uncertain  where 
Melas  was,  he  detached  Dessaix  with  a  flying  column  in  the  direction  of  Novi. 
Dessaix  could  not  find  the  Austrians  there,  and  hearing  firing  in  the  direction 
of  Marengo,  returned,  and  arrived  to  retrieve  the  day,  which  was  lost ;  the 
French  centre  was  broken,  and  the  troops;  in  jflight.  At  the  same  time,  Keller- 
mann,  seeing  the  flank  of  the  Hungarian  Grenadiers  exposed,  on  his  own 
initiative  flung  himself  upon  it  with  his  heavy  dragoons,  and  the  day  was  won  ; 
for  the  Austrian  army,  drawn  up  in  columns  on  the  roads  for  the  pursuit,  could 
not  deploy  in  time,  and  Melas  was  in  his  tent  at  the  rear,  writing  despatches 
announcing  his  victory. 


234        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  whole  disposition  of  the  French  troops  had  been  so  bad,  the  day  was 
such  a  succession  of  surprises,  that  Bonaparte  only  won  it  by  accident.  After- 
wards he  destroyed  the  bulletins  and  reports  sent  in  relative  to  the  battle  of 
Marengo,  lest  his  own  faulty  generalship  should  be  disclosed.  Dessaix  had 
fallen  ;  he  could  therefore  afford  to  praise  him ;  but  Kellermann's  services  he 
recognized  coldly.* 

That  same  evening  he  said  privately  to  Bourrienne,  "Little  Kellermann  made 
a  lucky  charge.  He  did  it  at  just  the  right  moment."  However,  when  that 
officer  approached  the  First  Consul,  Bonaparte  merely  said,  "You  made  a 
pretty  good  charge."  Then,  turning  to  Bessieres,  who  commanded  the  Horse 
Grenadiers,  he  said,  "  The  Guard  has  covered  itself  with  glory,"  though,  in  fact, 
this  body  did  not  charge  at  Marengo  till  nightfall,  when  the  success  of  the  day 
had  been  decided  by  Kellermann. f     The  latter  was  greatly  mortified. 

The  fact  seems  to  have  been  that  Marengo  was  so  nearly  a  crushing  defeat, 
that  Napoleon  could  not  afford  to  allow  to  be  generally  known  how  his  mistakes 
had  been  retrieved  by  others.  As  he  cast  blame  for  all  disasters  on  other  men, 
so  he  arrogated  to  himself  the  merit  of  every  success. 

Moreau  also  was  treated  with  injustice.  When  he  was  on  the  eve  of  finish- 
ing the  campaign  by  the  capture  of  Ulm,  and  an  advance  on  Vienna  through 
Bavaria,  Napoleon  deprived  him  of  a  quarter  of  his  army,  and  peremptorily 
forbade  advance.  Later  he  endeavoured  to  deprive  him  of  the  recognition  due 
to  his  merits  by  blame  for  not  having  followed  up  his  successes  by  the  taking  of 
Augsburg  and  the  occupation  of  Munich,  contrary  to  the  express  orders  given 
by  himself.  And  when  at  Hohenlinden  Moreau  completely  defeated  the 
Imperial  army,  Bonaparte  spitefully  criticised  his  tactics,  and  attributed  his 
success  to  one  of  the  accidents  of  war. 

"  Napoleon  wrote  reflections  on  this  battle,"  says  Lanfrey,  "  to  which  it  is 
hard  to  give  a  name.  If  the  word  jealousy — which  contemporaries  did  not 
hesitate  to  pronounce  on  this  occasion — must  be  withheld,  on  the  ground  that 
he  was  superior  to  the  need  of  fearing  anyone,  it  is  not  possible  to  deny 
that  his  critiques  were  dictated  by  the  most  miserable  and  the  meanest  ani- 
mosity. The  man  whom  Europe  considered  his  rival,  and  whom  the  two 
campaigns  of  1800  placed  in  the  first  rank  of  illustrious  captains,  was  treated 
by  him  as  a  backward  pupil." 

Henceforth  Bonaparte  eyed  Moreau  with  dislike ;  and,  although  for  a  while 
obliged  to  exhibit  some  respect,  he  waited  but  for  an  opportunity  to  arise  which 
would  enable  him  to  crush  his  rival.  For  the  purpose  of  separating  Moreau 
from  the  troops  he  had  led,  and  who  adored  him,  he  sent  the  latter  to  S. 
Domingo,  under  his  brother-in-law  General  Leclerc,  where  the  yellow  fever 
swept  them  off  in  great  numbers. 

Macdonald  was  another  who  excited  the  envy  of  Bonaparte,  because  in  mid- 

*  Savary  denies  that  this  movement  was  on  Kellermann's  initiative.  He  says  that  it  was  ordered  by 
Napoleon,  when  Dessaix  sent  to  him  to  entreat  support. 

t  '*  During  his  reign,"  says  Lanfrey,  *'  he  thrice  recast  his  bulletin,  so  as  to  modify  it,  in  view  of  what 
history  would  say.  In  these  three  relations,  preserved  to  us  in  the  Memorial  de  la  Guerre,  he  contradicts 
and  contravenes  his  own  statements  at  every  point," 


THE    CONSULATE 


235 


winter  he  crossed  the  Splugen  in  storms  of  snow,  an  undertaking  incomparably 
greater  than  the  passage  of  the  Great  S.  Bernard  in  fine  weather,  in  summer, 
and  unopposed.     Bonaparte  wrote  : — 

"  The  crossing  of  the  Splugen  presented,  without  doubt,  difficulties  ;  but 
winter  is  not  the  season  of  the  year  in  which  such  operations  are  conducted 
with  most  difficulty.  The  snow  is  then  firm,  the  weather  settled,  and  there  is 
nothing  to  fear  from  avalanches." 

He  left  out  of  count  the 
short  days  and  the  bitter 
nights,  and  that  Macdonald 
had  contested  the  passage 
against  an  enemy  in  the  midst 
of  snowstorms. 

Kleber  was  another  whom 
Napoleon  disliked,  and  the 
dislike  was  mutual.  During 
the  siege  of  Acre,  Kleber  said 
to  Bourrienne,  "  That  little 
scoundrel  Bonaparte,  who  is 
no  higher  than  my  boot,  will 
enslave  France." 

Napoleon  left  Kleber  in 
Egypt  to  maintain  the  con- 
quest, when  he  was  aware  that 
no  further  glory  was  to  be  won 
there.  Kleber  said  that  he 
once  heard  Bonaparte  remark, 
"  I  don't  want  men  of  genius 
in  the  army,"  and  Kleber 
added,  "  He  said  that  because 
he  feared  such." 


BONAPARTE   AND    THE    BATTLE    OF    MARENGO. 
Portrait  by  Bouillon. 


"Is  Bonaparte  loved ?  How 
could  he  be,  when  he  loved 
none?  But  he  thought  to 
supply  the  place  of  love  by 
forming  his  creatures  by  advances  and  presents."  * 

Bernadotte  he  particularly  disliked,  because  he  refused  him  assistance  on  the 
1 8th  Brumaire.     Bourrienne  says  : — 

"  He  looked  out  for  every  opportunity  to  place  him  in  difficult  situations,  and 
to  entrust  him  with  missions  for  which  no  precise  instructions  were  given,  in  the 
hope  that  Bernadotte  would  commit  faults  for  which  he  might  be  made 
responsible." 

Augereau,  Berthier,  Bessieres,  Junot,  Massena,  Lannes,  Kellermann,  Suchet, 
were  dashing  soldiers,  or  careful  tacticians  without  extraordinary  ability,  and 

*  Mimoires  dhme  Conietnporaine,  p.  162. 


236        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

without  daring  ambition.  But  Moreau  was  nearer  equality  in  strategy,  and  only 
his  inferior  in  resolution  and  tenacity  of  purpose.  Him  Napoleon  really  feared. 
He  could  not  allow  him  to  gain  too  many  successes,  lest  the  army  should  be 
divided  in  its  partiality. 

Among  the  generals  of  a  second  class,  ready  blindly  to  follow  him  and 
glitter  with  his  reflected  light,  Napoleon  was  ready  enough  to  dispense  favours, 
and  was  careful  to  encourage  affection. 

An  instance  of  the  real  love  he  inspired  in  such  men  shall  be  given.  It  was 
after  the  failure  of  the  pretended  attempt  of  Ceracchi  and  Arena  on  the  life  of 


THE    REVIEW. 
Drawn  by  Isabey  and  C.  Vernet,  and  engraved  by  M^cou. 


the  First  Consul,  when  at  the  Opera.     Junot  came  to  the  house  of  Madame 
Permon,  to  give  her  an  account  of  the  conspiracy,  and  of  its  failure. 

"  He  informed  her  that  Ceracchi  and  Arena — the  one  actuated  by  Republican 
fanaticism,  the  other  by  vengeance — had  taken  measures  to  assassinate  Bonaparte. 
As  General  Junot  proceeded  in  his  account  his  voice  became  stronger,  his 
language  more  emphatic ;  every  word  was  a  thought,  and  every  thought  came 
from  his  heart.  In  painting  Bonaparte  such  as  he  daily  saw  him,  his  masculine 
and  sonorous  voice  assumed  a  tone  of  sweetness — it  was  melody  ;  but  when  he 
proceeded  to  speak  of  those  men  who,  to  satisfy  their  vengeance  or  senseless 
wishes,  would  assassinate  him  who  was  at  that  moment  charged  with  the  future 
of  France,  his  voice  failed,  broken  by  sobs,  and  leaning  his  head  upon  my 
mother's  pillow,  he  wept  like  a  child.  Then,  as  if  ashamed  of  his  weakness,  he 
went  to  seat  himself  in  the  most  obscure  corner  of  the  room."  * 

*  Mem.  of  Mme.  Jtinoty  i,  356, 


THE   CONSULATE  237 

Moreover,  Napoleon  took  special  pains  to  ingratiate  himself  into  the  favour 
of  the  soldiers.  Bourrienne  says,  he  was  never  perfectly  happy  anywhere,  save 
on  a  battle-field;  and  soldiers  were  the  tool  wherewith  he  carved  out  a  place 
for  himself  Consequently  it  was  to  his  interest  that  the  tool  should  cut  well, 
and  adapt  itself  to  his  hand. 

Every  fifth  day — the  week  was  still  of  ten  days — the  First  Consul  had  a 
review,  or  parade,  in  the  Court  of  the  Tuileries  ;  and  all  the  regiments  in  France 
were  sent  up  alternately  to  Paris  to  be  reviewed  by  Bonaparte,  so  that  they  were 
all  brought  under  his  influence. 

"  Sometimes  he  galloped  along  the  ranks,  but  this  was  rarely.  He  never, 
indeed,  sat  his  horse,  unless  the  troops  had  already  passed  in  review,  and  he  was 
satisfied  that  nothing  was  wanting.  Even  then  he  would  address  a  few  ques- 
tions to  two  or  three  soldiers  casually  selected.  But  generally,  after  having 
ridden  along  the  ranks  on  his  white  horse,  '  Ee  Desire,'  he  would  alight,  and 
converse  with  all  his  field  officers,  and  with  nearly  all  the  subalterns  and  soldiers. 
His  solicitude  was  extended  to  the  most  minute  particulars — the  food,  the 
dress,  and  everything  that  could  be  necessary  to  the  soldier  or  useful  to  the  man 
divided  his  attention  with  the  evolutions.  He  encouraged  the  men  to  speak  to 
him  without  restraint.  '  Conceal  from  me  none  of  your  wants,'  he  would  say 
to  them  ;  *  suppress  no  complaints  you  may  have  to  make  of  your  superiors.  I 
am  here  to  do  justice  to  all,  and  the  weaker  party  is  especially  entitled  to  my 
protection.' 

"  Such  a  system  was  not  only  attended  with  immediately  beneficial  results, 
but  was  adroitly  adapted  to  answer  a  general  and  not  less  useful  purpose.  The 
army  and  its  chief  thus  became  inseparably  united,  and  in  the  person  of  that 
chief  the  army  beheld  the  French  nation."  * 

A  soldier  of  the  32nd  demi-brigade  having  written  to  Bonaparte,  reminding 
him  of  his  services,  his  wounds,  &c.,  received  the  following  reply  : — 

"  To  the  gallant  Leon !  I  have  received  your  letter,  my  gallant  comrade: 
You  are  the  bravest  grenadier  in  the  army,  now  that  the  gallant  Benezette  is 
dead.  You  received  one  of  the  hundred  sabres  which  I  distributed  to  the  army. 
All  the  soldiers  admitted  that  you  were  the  model  of  the  regiment.  I  greatly 
wish  to  see  you.     I  love  you  as  my  own  son." 

Such  a  letter  would  circulate ;  it  would  inspire  the  soldiers  with  enthusiasm 
for  the  great  general  who  called  them  gallant  comrades,  and  declared  that  he 
loved  them  as  his  children.  And  such  an  expression  was  not  an  empty  one. 
By  his  acts.  Napoleon  showed  that  he  earnestly  did  seek  the  well-being  of  his 
soldiers.  Nor  was  the  sentiment  feigned.  It  was  the  expression  of  his  sincerest 
feeling. 

This  was  not  the  case  when  Napoleon  cajoled  men  whom  he  mistrusted, 
such  as  Moreau.  He  could  and  did  flatter  them,  but  it  was  to  gain  them  ;  or  if 
he  could  not  gain  them,  to  lull  them  to  security,  till  the  opportunity  came  when 
he  could  break  and  throw  them  aside. 

When  Moreau  arrived  in  Paris  in  October — this  was  before  Hohenlinden — 
he  went  at  once,  without  even  changing  his  boots,  into  the  presence  of  the  Plrst 

*  Ibid.,  446. 


238        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Consul.  Napoleon  was  at  the  moment  inspecting  some  inlaid  pistols,  purchased 
as  a  present  for  the  King  of  Spain.  They  were  set  with  diamonds.  Directly 
the  First  Consul  saw  Moreau,  he  said,  "  These  weapons  come  apropos,"  presenting 
them  to  the  General  of  the  Army  on  the  Danube.  "  Citizen  Moreau  will  do  me 
the  favour  to  accept  them  as  a  mark  of  the  esteem  of  the  French  nation." 
Then,  turning  to  Lucien,  he  added,  "  Citizen  Minister,  have  some  of  the  battles 
of  General  Moreau  engraved  on  the  pistols,  but  not  all ;  we  must  leave  some 
room  for  diamonds."  Shortly  after  that,  Bonaparte  proposed  that  Moreau 
should  marry  his  sister  Pauline ;  the  General  declined  the  honour.  Such  a 
union  implied  that  he  was  to  surrender  his  principles  and  become  a  satellite 
about  Napoleon.  But  the  present  of  the  pistols  was  significant.  It  meant — 
"  Take  my  sister,  sell  yourself  wholly  to  me  for  the  diamonds  wherewith  I  can 
besprinkle  you,  or  a  duel  a  I'outrance"  Moreau  accepted  the  latter  alternative, 
and  was  defeated. 


'of -HE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


XXX 
THE    FIRST    STEP    TO    THE    THRONE 

(1800) 

^T^HE  first  step  openly  taken  to  the  re-establishment  of  Royalty,  was  in 
-*-  February,  1800,  when  Bonaparte  transferred  his  residence  to  the  Tuileries. 
He  was  a  little  doubtful  how  this  move  would  be  viewed ;  accordingly,  he 
determined  to  dazzle  the  eyes  of  the  Parisians  with  a  splendid  ceremony,  and 
befool  them  with  an  ovation  to  Washington  whilst  making  this  advance. 
Washington  had  died  on  December  14,  1799,  and  Napoleon  seized  on  this 
event  for  the  purpose  of  a  grand  demonstration  of  Republican  sympathy,  during 
which  he  might  transfer  his  lodging  to  the  palace  of  Royalty. 

Bourrienne  says :  "  Bonaparte  did  not  feel  much  concerned  at  the  death  of 
Washington  ;  but  it  afforded  him  an  opportunity  to  mask  his  ambitious  projects 
under  the  appearance  of  a  love  of  liberty.  In  thus  rendering  honour  to  the 
memory  of  Washington,  everybody  would  suppose  that  Bonaparte  intended  to 
imitate  his  example,  and  that  their  two  names  would  pass  in  conjunction  from 
mouth  to  mouth.  A  clever  orator  might  be  employed,  who,  while  pronouncing 
an  eulogium  on  the  dead,  v/ould  contrive  to  bestow  some  praise  on  the  living ; 
and  when  the  people  were  applauding  his  love  of  liberty,  he  would  find  himself 
one  step  nearer  the  throne,  on  which  his  eyes  were  constantly  fixed.  When 
the  proper  time  arrived,  he  would  not  fail  to  seize  the  Crown  ;  and  would  still 
cry,  if  necessary, '  Vive  la  Liberie  !'  while  placing  it  on  his  imperial  head." 

The  proper  orator  was  found,  it  was  M.  de  Fontanes,  and  he  prepared  a 
funeral  harangue,  which  was  calculated,  at  the  expense  of  the  memory  of 
Washington,  to  exalt  the  glories  of  the  First  Consul. 

The  ceremonial  took  place  in  the  Church  of  the  Invalides,  which  had  been 
converted  into  a  Temple  of  Mars,  and  where  the  place  of  the  Crucified  was 
occupied  by  a  statue  of  the  god  of  War.  A  national  mourning  for  Washington 
was  instituted  to  last  for  a  week  of  ten  days,  and  on  its  conclusion,  Napoleon 
took  up  his  residence  in  the  palace  of  the  kings.  For  a  few  weeks  his  brother 
Consuls  were  also  accommodated  with  rooms  therein,  and  then  were  bidden 
remove  quietly  to  their  private  lodgings. 

Bourrienne,  his  secretary,  says :  "  It  was  resolved  that  Bonaparte  should 
inhabit  the  Tuileries.  Still,  great  prudence  was  necessary,  to  avoid  the  quick- 
sands which    surrounded   him.     He   therefore  employed   great   precaution    in 

239 


240        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

dealing  with  the  susceptibilities  of  the  Republicans,  taking  care  to  inure  them 
gradually  to  the  temperature  of  absolute  power.  He  advanced  with  firm  step, 
but  never  neglected  any  artifice  by  which  to  conceal  his  designs." 

The  preparation  of  the  palace  had  been  conducted  in  such  a  manner  as  not 
to  provoke  comment.  It  was  true  that  some  caps  of  liberty  were  effaced,  and 
trees  of  liberty  cut  down  by  order  of  Napoleon,  but  he  had  the  halls  decorated 
in  a  grave  and  unostentatious  manner. 

Mme.  Junot  says  :  "Madame  Bonaparte  occupied  the  whole  ground-floor  of 

the  Tuileries.     Her  apartments  were  furnished  tastefully,  but  without  luxury ; 

the   great    reception -salon    was    hung   with    yellow   draperies;    the    movable 

furniture  was  damask,  the  fringes  of  silk,  and  the  wood  mahogany.     No  gold  was 

to    be   seen.      The   other   rooms   were   not   more   richly 

decorated ;    all   was    new  and    elegant,   but   no    more. 

The  larger  assemblies  were  held  upstairs.     As  yet 

there  was  neither  chamberlain  nor  prefect  of  the 

palace;    an    old    Councillor    of    State,   formerly 

Minister  of  the   Interior,  M.  de  Benezeck,  was 

charged    with    the    internal    administration    of 

the  palace,  which  was  at  first  a  little  difficult 

to  introduce  among  what  remained  of  genuine 

republicanism.       The     functions     of     M.     de 

Benezeck  embraced  those  afterwards  divided 

between     the     Grand     Chamberlain    and     the 

Master  of  the  Ceremonies.     The  maitre  d'hotel 

and    ushers    performed    the    subaltern    offices, 

and    the   aides-de-camp    supplied    the    place   of 

chamberlains." 

On  the  day  following  that  on  which  Napoleon 
SNUFFBOX.  had    removed    to     the    Tuileries,    he    said     to 

By  isabey.  Bourrienne,  "  You  see  what  it  is  to  have  one's 

Bequeathed  by  Napoleon  to  his  son. 

mmd  set  on  anythmg.  Yesterday  passed  well. 
Do  not  imagine  that  all  those  who  came  to  flatter  me  were  sincere.  Certainly 
they  were  not;  but  the  joy  of  the  people  was  genuine.  They  know  what  is 
right.  Besides,  consult  the  grand  thermometer  of  opinion,  the  price  of  the 
funds — on  the  nth  Brumaire  at  ii  francs,  on  the  I2th  at  i6,  and  to-day  at  21. 
In  such  a  state  of  things  I  may  let  the  Jacobins  prate  as  they  like.  But  let 
them  not  talk  too  loudly,  either ! " 

Then — "  To  be  at  the  Tuileries  is  not  all.  We  must  stay  here.  Who,  in 
Heaven's  name,  has  not  already  inhabited  this  palace  ?  Ruffians,  Conventional- 
ists. From  those  windows  yonder  I  saw  the  Tuileries  besieged,  and  the  good 
Louis  XVI.  carried  off.     Be  assured,  they  will  not  come  here  again." 

There  was  a  presentation  of  ambassadors,  described  by  Benjamin  Constant 
in  his  Memoires : — 

"At  eight  in  the  evening,  the  apartments  of  Madame  Bonaparte,  which 
were  situated  on  the  ground-floor,  overlooking  the  gardens,  were  crowded  with 
company.  There  was  a  dazzling  display  of  splendid  dresses^  feathers,  diamonds, 
&c.     So  numerous  was  the  throng  that  it  was  found  necessary  to  throw  open 


THE    FIRST    STEP    TO   THE    THRONE 


241 


Madame    Bonaparte's    bed-chamber,    the    two    drawing-rooms     being    very 
small. 

"  When,  after  considerable  embarrassment  and  trouble,  the  company  were 
arranged,  Madame  Bonaparte  was  announced,  and  she  entered,  conducted  by 
M.  de  Talleyrand.  She  wore  a  dress  of  white  muslin,  with  short  sleeves,  a 
pearl  necklace,  and  her  hair  was  simply  braided,  and  confined  by  a  tortoise- 
shell  comb.  The  buzz  of  admiration  which  greeted  her  on  her  entrance  must 
have  been  exceedingly  gratifying  to  her ;  she  never,  I  think,  looked  more 
graceful. 

"  M.  de  Talleyrand,  still  holding  Madame  Bonaparte  by  the  hand,  presented 
her  to  the  members  of  the  corps  diplomatique,  one  after  another,  not  introducing 
them  by  name,  but  designating  them  by  the  Courts  they  represented.  He 
then  conducted  her  round  the  two  drawing-rooms.  They  had  not  gone  above 
half  round  the  second  room  when  the  First 
Consul  entered,  without  being  announced.  He 
was  dressed  in  a  very  plain  uniform  coat, 
white  cashmere  pantaloons,  and  top-boots. 
Round  his  waist  he  wore  a  tri-coloured  silk 
scarf,  with  a  fringe  to  correspond,  and  he 
carried  his  hat  in  his  hand.  Amidst  the  em- 
broidered coats,  cordons,  and  jewels  of  the 
ambassadors  and  foreign  dignitaries,  Bona- 
parte's costume  appeared  no  less  singular 
than  the  contrast  presented  by  the  simple 
elegance  of  Josephine's  dress  compared  with 
the  splendour  of  the  ladies  around  her." 

Bonaparte  now  settled  the  costume  to  be 
worn  by  the  Consuls,  Ministers,  and  different 
bodies  of  the  State.  Ever  since  the  fall  of 
the  Monarchy,  velvet  had  been  abolished  as  a 
symbol  of  royalty. 

Bonaparte  reintroduced  it,  and  alleged,  as 
a  reason,  that  he  desired  to  encourage  the  manufactures  of  Lyons. 

"  It  was,"  says  Bourrienne,  "  his  constant  aim  to  efface  the  Republic,  even 
in  merest  trifles,  and  to  prepare  matters  so  that  all  externals  of  a  monarchy 
having  been  reintroduced  there  would  remain  but  a  word  to  be  changed." 

On  the  27th  Nivose,  a  decree  was  published,  suppressing  all  journals  printed 
in  Paris,  with  the  exception  of  thirteen,  as  being  "  in  the  hands  of  the  enemies 
of  the  Republic,"  and  those  tolerated  were  cautioned  not  to  insert  any  articles 
■*'  against  the  Sovereignty  of  the  People." 

Masquerades  were  again  permitted.  Bonaparte  was  glad  to  encourage  the 
old  amusements,  as  a  means  of  diverting  the  attention  of  the  people  from  his 
ambitious  plans  and  stealthy  advances.  So  also  the  Opera  balls  were  again 
begun.  As  Bonaparte  said — "  Whilst  the  people  of  Paris  are  chatting  about 
all  this,  they  do  not  babble  politics,  and  that  is  what  I  want.  Let  them  dance 
and  amuse  themselves  so  long  as  they  do  not  thrust  their  noses  into  the 
councils  of  the  Government." 


NAPOLEON. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


242        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

A  far  more  important  step  was  taken  in  the  repeal  of  the  law  against 
emigrants,  so  far  as  affected  those  who  had  not  taken  up  arms  against  the 
Republic.  He  was  desirous  of  bringing  back  to  France  the  old  noblesse,  and 
of  cajoling  it  into  forming  a  Court  around  himself  and  Josephine.  He  trusted 
that  so  long  as  they  had  the  substance  of  a  Court,  they  would  forget  who 
formed  the  centre  of  it.  But  with  regard  to  the  Royalist  party,  still  in  arms 
in  La  Vendee,  he  resolved  to  crush  it  with  the  utmost  rigour.  On  the  5th 
January  he  wrote  to  General  Hedonville,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army 
engaged  in  suppressing  the  Royalists  :— 

"  You  are  invested  with  full  power ;  act  as  freely  as  if  you  were  in  the  heart 
of  Germany.  Let  minor  interests  and  personal  considerations  disappear  in 
presence  of  the  necessity  of  stamping  out  the  rebellion.  It  is  useless  to  hold 
courts-martial.  The  Consuls  opine  that  all  rebels  taken  in  arms  should  be 
summarily  executed.  ...  No  matter  what  accusations  are  brought  against  you, 
the  Government  will  support  you  ;  your  military  action  will  be  examined  by 
a  man  who  is  accustomed  to  severe  and  energetic  measures.  ...  It  will  be  well 
to  burn  down  two  or  three  large  villages.  Experience  has  taught  us  that  this 
is  the  most  humane  way  of  proceeding.     Weakness  is  inhumanity." 

General  Hedonville,  not  having  shown  himself  sufficiently  ferocious,  was 
superseded  by  General  Brunne.  In  the  first  instructions  issued  to  the  latter 
he  was  ordered  to  burn  some  large  villages  in  Morbihan.  "  It  is  only  by 
rendering  war  terrible,"  said  Bonaparte,  "  that  the  inhabitants  will  be  induced 
to  shake  off  their  apathy,  and  unite  against  the  brigands  "  {ix.  Royalists).  At 
the  same  time  hints  were  to  be  disseminated  that  Napoleon  was  desirous  of 
restoring  the  monarchy,  and  great  indulgence  was  to  be  shown  to  the  priests. 
Those  who  were  to  be  cruelly  dealt  with  were  poor  peasants,  but  to  all  return- 
ing nobles  great  favour  was  to  be  shown,  and  every  effort  was  employed  to  win 
them  over  to  the  side  of  the  First  Consul. 

A  serious  proceeding  was  the  institution  of  a  secret  police,  an  organised 
body  of  political  spies.  The  police  who  had  charge  of  the  public  welfare  were 
under  Fouche ;  this  secret  body  was  placed,  at  first,  under  Duroc  and  Mouncey, 
and  then  under  Davoust  and  Junot.  Josephine  intensely  disliked  the  system. 
Bonaparte  himself  was  dissatisfied  with  its  working,  but  he  would  not  abandon 
the  scheme.  Every  part  of  his  administration  was  pervaded  by  spies — they 
obtained  a  footing  about  all  the  principal  personages  of  State,  they  penetrated 
into  families,  they  were  placed  in  foreign  Courts.  This  band  Bonaparte  called 
his  Telegraphic  Company,  and  they  spied  even  on  the  proceedings  of  Fouche 
and  his  General  Police.  The  number  of  these  dangerous  stipendiaries  amounted 
in  March,  1803,  to  three  thousand  six  hundred  and  ninety-two.* 

This  intolerable  system  grew  out  of  the  institution,  in  the  days  of  the  Terror, 
of  every  citizen  being  entitled  to  spy  on  his  fellow,  and  of  the  clubs  being 
organised  bodies  of  accusers  of  political  crimes.  Napoleon  adopted  the  principle, 
reduced  it  to  a  system,  and  enveloped  the  proceedings  of  his  agents  in  secrecy. 

Bonaparte  had  seen  that  in  the  Republic  there  was  no  source  of  honour. 

*  Secret  Memoirs,  p.  94. 


THE    FIRST   STEP   TO   THE   THRONE 


243 


Decrees  had  indeed  been  passed  in  commendation  of  certain  individuals  as 
having  deserved  well  of  their  country ;  but  those  so  commended  were  often  the 
basest  of  mankind.  The  functionaries  under  the  Convention  and  the  Directory 
had  worked  for  nothing  save  themselves.  Robespierre,  finding  that  this  was 
universal,  and  unable  to  inspire  any  noble  sentiment,  sought  to  check  the 
corruption  by  fear,  and  sent  the  worst  peculators  to  the  guillotine.  The  pecu- 
lators combined  against  him,  and  destroyed  him.  Thenceforth  the  rapacity  of 
all  office-holders,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  was  unrestrained. 

To  rectify  this,  Bonaparte  instituted  honourable  rewards — rings,  swords, 
guns,  and  trumpets  of  honour.  The  names  of  those  who  received  these  dis- 
tinctions were  to  be  engraved  on 
tables  of  marble,  in  the  Temple 
of  Mars.  These  honours  were  at 
first  accorded  exclusively  to  men 
in  military  service.  But  this  was 
the  preliminary  stage  to  the  insti- 
tution of  the  Legion  of  Honour, 
the  cross  of  which  was  to  be  so 
coveted  by  men  of  all  branches 
of  the  service. 

An  important  stride  towards 
the  attainment  of  that  which 
Napoleon  had  in  view  was  taken, 
when  he  set  to  work  to  conciliate 
the  Church.  He  perfectly  recog- 
nised the  power  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  he  saw  how  strong 
was  the  recoil  from  infidelity. 
If  he  could  withdraw  the  clergy 
from  their  allegiance  to  the 
House  of  Bourbon,  they  would 
largely  influence  their  flocks,  and  reconcile  them  to  his  autocracy.  He  had 
already  begun  this. 

Pope  Pius  VI.  had  been  removed  from  Rome  by  the  French  in  1799,  and 
hustled  from  place  to  place  by  order  of  the  Directory ;  placed  for  a  while  in  the 
citadel  of  Turin,  he  was  then  conveyed  over  Mont  Genevre  to  Briangon.  Thence 
the  official  who  received  him  sent  to  headquarters  a  formal  receipt,  couched  in 
these  terms :  "  Regu — un  Pape,  en  fort  mauvais  etat."  He  was  transferred  to 
Valence,  where  he  died,  August  29th,  1799. 

In  February,  1800,  the  First  Consul  had  ordered  the  translation  of  the 
Pope's  body,  with  great  solemnity,  to  Rome.  On  the  17th  of  that  month  it 
arrived  in  the  Eternal  City ;  and  on  the  following  day  a  grand  funeral  mass  was 
sung  in  the  presence  of  the  new  Pontiff,  Pius  VI L,  and  of  many  high  function- 
aries, conspicuous  among  whom  was  the  Minister  of  the  French  Republic,  which 
two  years  before  had  invaded  Rome,  and  had  driven  Pius  VI.  into  exile. 


BONAPARTE. 
After  Philips.      Engraved  by  C.  Turner. 


244        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Napoleon  had  an  account  of  this  funeral  printed  in  French,  and  distributed 
broadcast  in  Brittany,  La  Vendee,  and  wherever  the  peasantry  were  strong  in 
their  adhesion  to  Catholicism. 

When  he  was  in  Milan,  after  having  crossed  the  Great  S.  Bernard,  he  took 
vast  pains  to  conciliate  the  clergy.  He  published  a  manifesto,  in  which  he 
declared  the  sentiments  of  profound  respect  with  which  he  regarded  the  Holy 
Father,  and  the  sincerity  of  his  attachment  to  the  Catholic  faith.  He  assembled 
the  priests  of  Milan,  and  reminded  them  of  the  protection  he  had  afforded  them 
on  a  former  occasion.  He  assured  them  that  his  faith  was  the  same  as  theirs, 
and  that  he  was  persuaded  that  no  other  religion  could  secure  happiness  and 
good  government.  He  undertook  to  punish,  even  with  death,  anyone  who 
should  insult  that  religion  or  their  sacred  persons.  He  had  disapproved  of  all 
that  had  been  done  against  religion  when  he  was  a  simple  agent  of  the  Govern- 
ment. "  Modern  philosophers,"  he  added,  "  have  tried  to  persuade  France  that 
the  Catholic  religion  is  the  implacable  enemy  of  every  democratic  system,  and 
of  every  Republican  Government.  Hence  the  cruel  persecution  of  religion  and 
its  ministers  by  the  French  Republic.  .  .  .  Experience  has  undeceived  the 
French,  and  has  convinced  them  that  the  Catholic  religion  is  better  adapted  than 
any  other  to  divers  forms  of  government,  and  is  peculiarly  favourable  to 
republican  institutions." 

In  a  bulletin  of  the  Army  of  Italy  of  the  4th  June,  he  announced  that 
"a  Te  Deum  had  been  chanted  in  the  cathedral  of  Milan,  in  honour  of  the 
happy  delivery  of  Italy  from  heretics  and  infidels.  .  .  .  Even  the  priests  were 
discontented  at  seeing  English  heretics  and  infidel  Mussulmans  profane  the 
territory  of  holy  Italy." 

And  all  this  just  a  year  after  he  had  boasted  in  Egypt  that  he  had  destroyed 
the  Pope,  overthrown  the  cross,  and  that  he  was  one  with  the  Mussulmans  in 
fighting  for  the  unity  of  Allah  against  those  who,  "  by  their  lies,"  proclaimed  the 
Trinity.  And,  moreover,  a  few  days  after  this,  he  appointed  Abdallah  Menou, 
his  one  general  who  had  abjured  Christianity  and  become  a  Mussulman,  to  be  a 
governor  in  "  holy  Italy." 

In  July,  1800,  he  wrote  to  the  prefect  of  La  Vendee  to  send  delegates  of  his 
department  to  Paris.  "  And  if  there  are  priests  among  them,  send  them  to  me 
in  preference  to  others,  for  I  esteem  and  love  priests  who  are  good  Frenchmen, 
and  know  how  to  defend  their  country  against  the  eternal  enemies  of  France, 
those  wicked  English  heretics."  His  object  was  clear  enough.  By  means  of  the 
priests  whom  he  hoped  to  gain,  he  trusted  to  reconcile  the  Catholic  Vendeeans 
to  his  rule.  And,  indeed,  he  ventured  soon  after,  in  a  Council  of  State,  to  frankly 
declare :  "  With  my  prefets,  my  gensdarmes,  and  my  priests,  I  shall  be  able  to  do 
just  what  I  like." 

He  made  preparations  for  the  Concordat.  He  had  already  his  consecration 
by  a  Pope  in  view,  and  that  was  to  him  essential,  as  giving  him  the  only  divine 
sanction  he  could  appeal  to  against  the  legitimate  aspirant  to  the  crown. 

But  he  used  his  wonted  subtlety  in  this  matter  also.  To  the  Catholics  he 
showed  himself  as  one  eager  to  bring  the  country  back  into  allegiance  to  the 


THE    FIRST   STEP   TO   THE   THRONE  245 

Church ;  but  to  the  freethinkers  he  held  very  different  language.  He  repre- 
sented to  them  the  power  of  the  Church,  and  the  great  advantage  it  would  be 
for  the  State  to  exercise  control  over  it.  "  This  is  only  religious  vaccination," 
said  he  to  Cabanis  ;  "  in  fifty  years  we  shall  have  expelled  religion  altogether 
out  of  France."  And  to  La  Fayette  he  said,  "  I  shall  put  the  priests  down  lower 
than  they  were  when  you  left  them.  A  bishop  will  be  only  too  grateful  to  be 
invited  to  dine  with  a  prefet.  .  .  .  Will  it  not  be  something  to  get  the  Pope  and 
the  clergy  to  declare  against  the  legitimacy  of  the  Bourbons  ?  "  To  which  the 
friend  of  Washington,  with  great  shrewdness,  answered  :  ^'  A  lions,  general,  con- 
fess your  true  aims;  you  want  to  have  the  little  phial  of  holy  oil  broken  on  your 
own  head."* 

*  La  Fayette,  Mes  rapports  avec  Le  Premier  Consul^  en  M^moires,  Correspondance,  et  Mamiscrits, 
Brux.  1837-8. 


XXXI 
IN   THE    TUILERIES 

IN  a  celebrated  passage,  Tacitus  divides  the  life  of  Tiberius  into  epochs,  and 
gives  us  the  characteristics  of  the  man  in  each  of  these.  In  the  life  of  Bona- 
parte the  epochs  were  very  marked,  and  their  distinction  was  indicated  by  a 
change  in  his  personal  appearance.  To  the  first  belongs  the  meagre  and  sour 
youth,  when  he  was  "  Puss  in  Boots,"  an  inveterate  grumbler,  and  a  bitter 
Jacobin.  He  had  then  the  lean  and  hungry  look  of  a  conspirator.  He  wore  his 
hair  long,  his  cheeks  were  hollow,  his  tongue  spiteful. 

After  the  13th  Vendemiaire  he  entered  on  his  second  stage,  which  was  that 
of  dissimulation,  a  preparation  for  a  volte-face  in  sentiments.  He  had  lost  faith 
in  principles.     Men  of  principle  he  called  idealists. 

"  The  word  ideologue  was  often  in  Bonaparte's  mouth  ;  and,  in  using  it,  he 
endeavoured  to  throw  ridicule  on  those  men  whom  he  fancied  to  have  a  ten- 
dency towards  the  doctrine  of  indefinite  perfectibility.  He  esteemed  them  for 
their  morality,  yet  he  regarded  them  as  dreamers.  According  to  him,  they 
looked  for  power  in  institutions.  He  had  no  idea  of  any  power  except  in  direct 
force.  All  benevolent  men,  seeking  the  amelioration  of  humanity,  were  regarded 
by  Bonaparte  as  dangerous,  because  their  maxims  and  principles  were  dia- 
metrically opposed  to  the  harsh  and  arbitrary  system  he  had  adopted.  He 
always  said  that  men  were  only  to  be  governed  by  fear  and  interest."* 

In  Italy  he  wore  his  hair  long,  but  had  it  cut  in  Egypt.  His  features  were 
becoming  more  set,  and  his  expression  more  reposeful. 

He  had  suspected  his  own  talents  before  the  13th  Vendemiaire  ;  before  the 
1 8th  Brumaire  he  knew  them.  With  this  latter  day  Napoleon  entered  on  his 
third  epoch,  that  of  consolidation  of  his  position,  and  of  centralisation  of  all 
power  in  himself. 

Bourrienne  thus  describes  his  personal  appearance  at  this  time  : — 

"  His  finely-shaped  head,  his  superb  forehead,  his  pale  countenance,  and  his 
usual  meditative  look,  have  been  transferred  to  canvas  ;  but  the  versatility  of  his 
expression  was  beyond  the  reach  of  imitation.  All  the  various  workings  of  his 
mind  were  instantaneously  depicted  in  his  countenance,  and  his  glance  changed 
from  mild  to  severe,  and  from  angry  to  good-humoured,  almost  with  the  rapidity 
of  lightning.  It  may  truly  be  said  that  he  had  a  particular  look  for  every 
thought  that  arose  in  his  mind.  Bonaparte  had  beautiful  hands,  and  he  was  very 
proud  of  them  ;  while  conversing,  he  would  often  look  at  them  with  an  air  of 

*  Bourrienne,  i.  331  {condensed). 
246 


IN   THE   TUILERIES 


247 


self-complacency.     He  also  fancied  he  had  fine  teeth,  but  his  pretensions  to  that 
advantage  were  not  so  well  founded  as  those  on  the  score  of  his  hands. 

"When  walking,  either  alone  or  in  company  with  anyone,  in  his  apartments 
or  in  his  gardens,  he  had  the  habit  of  stooping  a  little,  and  crossing  his  hands 
behind  his  back.  He  gave  an  involuntary  shrug  to  his  right  shoulder,  which  was 
accompanied  by  a  movement  of  his  mouth  from  left  to  right.  This  habit  was 
always  most  remarkable  when  his  mind  was  absorbed  in  the  consideration  of 
any  profound  subject.  .  .  .  When  walking  with  any  person  whom  he  treated, 
with  familiarity,  he  would  link  his  arm  into  that  of  his  companion  and  lean  on  it. 
...  His  partiality  for  the  bath 
he  mistook  for  a  necessity.  He 
would  usually  remain  in  the 
bath  two  hours.  While  in  it 
he  was  continually  turning  on 
the  hot  water  to  raise  the 
temperature ;  so  that  I,  who 
read  to  him  at  the  time,  was 
sometimes  enveloped  in  such  a 
dense  vapour,  that  I  could  not 
see  to  read." 

Madame  de  Remusat  says: — 

"  Bonaparte  rose  at  no  fixed 
hours,  but  ordinarily  at  7  o'clock. 
When  he  awoke  in  the  night, 
he  sometimes  began  to  wash, 
or  he  bathed,  or  ate.  His 
awakening  was  generally  melan- 
choly,and  appeared  painful.  Not 
infrequently  he  had  convulsive 
spasms  in  the  stomach,  which 
made  him  vomit.  Sometimes 
he  seemed  to  be  much  dis- 
quieted by  such  attacks,  as  if  he 
dreaded  being  poisoned  ;  and 
then  there  was  great  diflficult). 
to  prevent  him  increasing  this 
tendency  by  trying  all  he  could 
to  excite  vomitir^g."* 

This  fear  of  attempts  on  his  life  was  very  present  with  him.  Before  the  i8th 
Brumaire,  when  he  dined  with  the  Councils,  at  a  banquet  given  in  his  honour,  he 
would  not  eat  of  the  meats  prepared.  On  the  i8th  Brumaire,  in  the  courtyard 
of  S.  Cloud,  he  never  remained  stationary  for  a  moment,  but  moved  about  in 
zigzag  fashion,  lest  he  should  be  picked  off  by  a  shot  from  one  of  the  windows. 
At  Malmaison,  he  confined  his  walks  to  within  the  circle  guarded  by  the  police, 
lest  an  attempt  should  be  made  to  poignard  him.  He  was  constantly  on  the 
look  out  for  the  daggers  of  the  Jacobins,  whom  he  well  knew  to  be  capable  of 
anything.  Most  absurdly,  he  gave  credit  to  the  notion  that  the  English  Govern- 
ment hired  assassins  to  remove  him.     In  the  fieM  he  thought  he  bore  a  charmed 


THE    FIRST   CONSUL. 
From  a  picture  by  Greuze. 


*  Memoirs ^  ii.  335. 


248        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

life,  but  not  when  at  Paris.  After  the  assassination  of  the  Emperor,  Paul  I.,  his 
alarm  on  this  score  rose  to  a  panic,  and  he  actually  indited  to  Talleyrand  the 
following  words  to  be  addressed  to  the  English  Government : — "  As  to  the  small 
number  of  assassins  who  are  actively  employed  in  the  interior,  at  the  instigation 
of  England,  they  were  little  to  be  dreaded,  and  the  English  Government  must 
not  calculate  hopefully  on  their  assistance."  * 

"  Bonaparte  entertained  a  profound  dislike,"  says  Bourrienne,  "  of  the 
sanguinary  men  of  the  Revolution,  and  especially  of  the  regicides.  He  felt,  as  a 
painful  burden,  the  obligation  of  dissembling  towards  them.  He  spoke  to  me 
in  terms  of  horror  of  those  whom  he  called  the  assassins  of  Louis  XVI.,  and  he 
was  annoyed  at  the  necessity  of  employing  them  and  treating  them  with 
apparent  respect.  How  many  times  has  he  not  said  to  Cambaceres,  pinching 
his  ear,  to  soften,  by  that  habitual  familiarity,  the  bitterness  of  the  remark,  '  My 
dear  fellow,  your  case  is  clear.  If  ever  the  Bourbons  come  back,  you  will  be 
hanged.'  A  forced  smile  would  then  relax  the  livid  countenance  of  Cambaceres, 
and  was  usually  the  only  reply  of  the  Second  Consul." 

This  horror  of  the  Jacobins  was  due  to  his  fear  lest  they  should  endeavour 
to  compass  his  destruction,  and  he  knew  that  to  them  all  modes  were  in- 
different. It  was  through  this  dread  of  the  dagger,  that  he  was  so  much  afraid 
of  giving  tete-d-tete  audiences,  and  insisted  on  a  second  person  being  present. 

The  Jacobins  were  not  the  sole  object  of  this  dread.  "  It  is  curious,"  says 
Bourrienne,  "  that  amidst  all  the  anxieties  of  war  and  government,  the  fear  of 
the  Bourbons  incessantly  pursued  him,  and  the  Faubourg  S.  Germain  was  to 
him  always  a  threatening  phantom." 

The  besetting  idea  that  England  not  only  connived  at  the  plots  of  the 
Bourbons  to  obtain  his  assassination,  but  even  provided  means,  men,  and  money 
for  such  a  crime,  could  not  be  got  out  of  his  head.  The  Corsican,  with  his 
inherited  notions  that  the  stiletto  was  the  proper  means  whereby  wrongs  were 
to  be  righted,  did  not  think  such  methods  beneath  the  honour  of  a  great  nation 
and  a  responsible  Government.  It  was  in  vain  for  Lord  Hawkesbury  indignantly 
to  repudiate  such  a  charge  ;  Napoleon  believed  that  he  was  justified  in  return- 
ing to  it,  and  the  base  Fouche  did  his  utmost  to  foster  this  notion,  and  stir 
almost  to  frenzy  his  master's  fear  of  the  assassin.  By  his  agents,  he  managed 
to  obtain  copies  of  the  correspondence  of  Drake,  the  English  agent  at  the 
Court  of  Munich,  and  of  Spencer,  who  acted  in  the  same  capacity  in  that  at 
Stuttgart,  and  he  persisted  in  believing  that  this  correspondence  proved  such 
connivance  of  the  Ministry  with  plots  for  murder,  though  no  one  else  could  see 
any  incriminating  passages  in  the  letters  published.  On  them  he  wrote  to 
Dessolles,  commanding  in  Hanover  (8th  March,  1804),  "Nothing  can  equal  the 
intense  stupidity  of  this  plot,  if  it  be  not  its  wickedness.  The  human  heart  is 
an  abyss  which  deceives  calculation,  and  cannot  be  fathomed  by  the  most 
penetrating  genius." 

To  Talleyrand  he  wrote  on  May  30th,  1804: — "The  French  Government  is 
authorised  to  consider  all  the  representatives  of  the  British  Cabinet  as  agents 

*  Bonaparte  to  Talleyrand,  28th  May,  1801. 


IN   THE   TUILERIES 


249 


of  plot  and  war.  The  most  noble  profession,  which  enjoys  a  kind  of  sanctity, 
and  which  is  surrounded  by  the  veneration  of  men,  is  for  the  British  Cabinet 
merely  a  veil  to  cover  plots,  crimes,  and  subversions !  An  ambassador  is  a 
minister  of  conciliation  ;  his  duty  is  always  a  holy  duty  founded  upon  morality ; 
and  the  British  Cabinet  says  he  is  an  instrument  of  war,  who  has  a  right  to  do 
anything,  provided  he  does  nothing  against  the  country  by  which  he  is 
accredited.  .  .  .  The  English  Government  has  often  given  proofs  of  political 
ferocity,  now  it  behaves  with  folly  and  imbecility." 


■ 

1 

|l 

W^^^^^^^^^i 

t^^^^^l 

^^^1 

^^H 

Ml^ni^H 

■ 

1 

ATIEMPT    OF   THE    3RD    NIVOSE. 
From  a  lithograph. 

Yet  his  own  agents  were  everywhere  engaged  in  the  violation  of  every  right, 
in  arresting  on  neutral  territory,  in  copying  secret  despatches,  in  bribing 
ministers,  and  in  stirring  up  revolutionary  movements. 

He  was  incapable  of  understanding  the  feeling  of  a  nation  roused  against 
his  encroachments,  and  violation  of  its  rights  and  liberties.  Opposition  he 
attributed  to  the  venality  of  the  Courts  and  the  stupidity  of  the  people,  the 
former  bought  by  English  gold,  the  latter  hoodwinked  to  support  those  they 
ought  to  despise  and  resist. 

The  first  attempt  at  assassination  was  attributed  to  Caracolli  and  the 
Corsican  Arena,  but  it  was  never  brought  home  to  them,  and  many  believed 
that  it  was  a  plot  manufactured  by  the  police.  Then  the  police  discovered  a 
sort  of  infernal  machine,  at  the  workshop  of  a  man  named  Chevalier,  but  no 
evidence  was  forthcoming  to  show  that  it  was  designed  to  destroy  the  First 
Consul,  though  Chevalier  was  unable  to  prove  that  it  had  any  honest  purpose. 
The  attempt  which  created  greatest  noise  was  that  which  produced  an  explosion 


250        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

whilst  the  First  Consul  was  on  the  wa}'  to  the  Opera,  which  killed  four  persons 
and  wounded  sixty.  This  was  on  the  3rd  Xivose  (27th  December,  1800).  The 
man  who  had  charge  of  it  was  injured,  and  his  depositions  were  taken  down. 
It  seems  to  have  been  devised  by  a  very  few.  Napoleon  was  filled  with  rage, 
and  in  a  paroxysm  of  fear  declared,  in  reply  to  a  deputation  of  the  Council  of 
State  to  congratulate  him  on  his  escape,  "  This  is  not  a  plot  of  nobles,  of 
Chouans,  nor  of  priests ;  but  it  is  that  of  the  Septembrists,*  those  scoundrels, 
covered  with  crime,  who  form  a  battalion  in  square  marching  against  every 
successive  Government.  .  .  .  Some  means  must  be  found  to  execute  prompt 
justice  upon  them." 

Fouche,  head  of  the  police,  and  an  old  Terrorist,  endeavoured  as  much  as 
possible  to  screen  his  Jacobin  allies,  and  he  produced  evidence  that  this  plot 
was  the  work  of  Chouans.  Nevertheless,  Napoleon  grasped  the  occasion  to  get 
rid  of  the  principal  Jacobins,  and  such  enemies  of  his  encroachments  as  he 
dared  to  lay  hands  on.  Caracolli  and  Arena  were  executed,  then  Chevalier  and 
four  accomplices ;  after  that  a  hundred  and  thirty  dangerous  men  were  sentenced 
to  be  deported — "  Not  because  they  had  been  taken  dagger  in  hand,  but  because 
they  were  universally  known  to  be  capable  of  urging  on  or  partaking  in  such  a 
crime."     All  but  two  died  in  the  places  whither  they  were  transported. 

There  can  be  little  question  that  the  bulk  of  Frenchmen  were  heartily  glad 
that  punishment  should  have  fallen  on  the  men  who  had  stained  the  French  soil 
with  innocent  blood,  and  that  their  deportation  was  regarded  as  a  guarantee 
against  further  revolution. 

Although  the  Peace  of  Luneville  had  been  concluded,  Bonaparte  had  no 
desire  for  a  prolonged  state  of  tranquillity.  All  he  needed  was  sufficient  time  to 
consolidate  his  position. 

He  said  to  Bourrienne  : — 

"  A  great  reputation  is  a  great  noise ;  the  more  there  is  made,  the  farther  off 
it  is  heard.  Laws,  institutions,  nations,  all  fall ;  but  the  noise  continues  and 
resounds  in  after  ages.  .  .  .  My  power  depends  on  my  glory,  and  my  glory  on 
my  victories.  My  power  would  fall  were  I  not  to  support  it  by  new  glory  and 
new  victories.  Conquest  has  made  me  what  I  am,  and  conquest  alone  can 
maintain  me." 

Bourrienne  remarks,  "  This  was  then,  and  probably  always  continued  to  be, 
his  predominant  idea,  and  that  which  prompted  him  continually  to  scatter  the 
seeds  of  war  through  Europe.  He  thought  that  if  he  remained  stationary  he 
would  fall,  and  he  was  tormented  with  the  desire  of  continually  advancing. 
Not  to  do  something  great  and  decided  was,  in  his  opinion,  to  do  nothing. 
*  A  newly-born  government,'  said  he  to  me,  '  must  dazzle  and  astonish.  When 
it  ceases  to  do  that  it  falls.' " 

To  return  to  his  personal  appearance  and  manner,  the  author  of  the  Secret 
Memoirs  says  of  this  period  : — 

"  At  the  time  that  I  knew  him  only  as  a  general,  his  haughtiness,  his  dis- 
dain, his  contempt  for  others,  were  perceptible  through  even  his  most  trifling 

*  Those  engaged  in  the  massacres  in  the  prisons  in  September,  1 792. 


IN   THE   TUILERIES  251 

actions.  But  no  sooner  did  he  become  Consul,  than  the  expression  of  his 
countenance  was  enlivened,  his  voice  became  less  harsh,  his  eye  mild,  and  his 
manner  much  less  repulsive.  Did  he  confer  a  favour,  or  promote  anyone  to  an 
office,  it  was  done  with  courtesy,  often  with  the  addition  of  some  obliging 
expression.  The  beauties  of  language  were  little  familiar  to  him ;  he  was  a 
stranger  to  those  brilliant  obscurities,  those  neat  inversions,  so  necessary  to 
statesmen,  who  do  not  always  express  what  they  ought  to  say,  but  what  they 
wish  others  to  understand.  To  remedy  this  dearth  of  oratorical  power,  he 
formed  a  dictionary  of  chosen  words  and  phrases,  which  he  used  according  to 
the  time,  place,  person,  or  circumstances.  .  .  .  Bonaparte  was  born  a  despot, 
the  passion  of  domineering  over  men  and  crushing  them  was  innate  in  him. 
Men  and  circumstances  fed  that  passion,  but  even  without  such  stimulants,  he 
would  never  have  been  a  good  prince.  Master  of  a  school,  or  upon  a  throne, 
chief  of  a  squadron,  or  a  corporal  on  guard,  at  Paris  or  in  Kamschatka,  every- 
where he  would  have  been  a  tyrant."  * 

When  Bonaparte  was  in  good  humour,  his  usual  tokens  of  favour  were  a 
pinch  of  the  ear,  or  a  rap  on  the  head,  and  he  addressed  those  he  was  with  as 
"  fools,"  "  simpletons,"  "  blockheads."  To  women  he  was  not  much  more  polite. 
To  one  he  would  remark  on  the  redness  of  her  elbows,  to  another  on  the 
ugliness  of  her  head-dress,  and  ask  another  how  long  she  was  going  to  appear 
in  his  presence  in  the  same  gown.  One  day,  after  he  became  Emperor,  he  said 
to  the  Duchesse  de  Chevreuse,  in  the  presence  of  a  large  company,  "  What  red 
hair  you  have  got ! "  "  Sire,"  answered  the  lady,  "  it  may  be  so,  but  this  is  the 
first  time  a  gentleman  has  ever  told  me  so." 

Napoleon  shortly  after  banished  her  to  Tours,  because  she  declined  to 
become  maid-of-honour  to  his  sister-in-law,  the  soap-boiler's  daughter. 

Bonaparte  had  wrested  Tuscany  from  the  House  of  Austria,  and  constituted 
a  Kingdom  of  Etruria,  which  he  had  given  to  the  Spanish  Infante  of  Parma 
with  the  title  of  King  of  Etruria.  He  and  his  bride  were  bidden  to  come 
to  Paris,  where  Napoleon  desired  to  display  himself  as  the  giver  of  crowns.  As 
Madame  de  Stael  wittily  said,  "  He  made  an  essay  with  this  royal  lamb,  before 
bidding  a  King  wait  in  his  ante-chamber."  The  poor  prince  was  feeble-minded; 
and  Napoleon  was  rejoiced  to  have  it  in  his  power  to  show  off  a  degenerate 
Bourbon  to  the  jeers  of  the  people.f 

Great  festivities  were  given  in  Paris  in  honour  of  the  young  couple.  At  the 
theatre,  where  (Edipus  was  being  performed,  a  sentence  of  Philoctetes  was 
rapturously  applauded: — "J'ai  fait  des  souverains,  et  n'ai  pas  voulu  I'etre." 
The  First  Consul  was  manifestly  pleased  at  the  application.  The  ephemeral 
kingdom  lasted  scarcely  six  years.  The  King  died  in  1803,  and  in  1807  the 
Queen  was  expelled  from  her  throne  by  him  who  had  constructed  it  for  her. 

The  production  of  the  imbecile  King,  under  the  patronage  of  the  First 
Consul,  was  a  more  successful  coup  than  was  that  attempted  by  a  pamphlet, 
drawn  up  by  M.  de  Fontaines,  corrected  by  Napoleon,  and  issued  from  the 
office  of  Lucien,  who  was  Minister  of  the  Interior.     The  pamphlet  was  entitled, 

*  Secret  Memoirs,  86,  89. 

t  The  poor,  amiable,  foolish  Prince,  was  Louis  de  Bourbon,  eldest  son  of  the  Duke  of  Parma,  and 
was  married  to  the  Infanta  of  Spain,  Maria  Louisa,  third  daughter  of  Charles  IV. 


252        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

A  Parallel  between  Ccesar,  Cromwell,  and  Bonaparte,  and  the  drift  of  it  was  the 
advantage  of  an  hereditary  monarchy.  But  the  appearance  of  the  brochure 
was  premature,  and  met  with  general  disapproval ;  so  that  Napoleon  was 
obliged  to  disavow  it,  cast  the  blame  on  his  brother  Lucien,  and  send  him  into 
Spain  on  a  diplomatic  mission.  Lucien  was  in  ill-humour  over  this.  The 
pamphlet  could  not  have  appeared  without  his  sanction,  and  yet  he  professed 
that  the  cause  of  his  dismissal  was  due  to  the  staunchness  of  his  Republicanism,, 
and  to  his  disapproval  of  the  manner  in  which  Napoleon  was  gathering  into  his 
own  hand  all  the  reins  of  government. 

Malmaison,  though  a  charming  country  residence,  did  not  now  seem  to 
Bonaparte  sufficiently  palatial  for  him  as  First  Consul,  and  he  obtained  as  his 
summer  residence  Saint  Cloud,  over  the  repair  of  which  600,000  francs  was 
expended  ;  and  the  furniture  to  prepare  it  for  his  residence  was  taken  from  the 
national  museums  of  Paris  and  Versailles,  the  tapestry  came  from  the  Gobelins 
and  Beauvais. 

At  one  time.  Napoleon  had  been  proud  of  his  being  a  member  of  the 
Institute,  and  had  flourished  his  title  to  that  honour  before  those  of  his  military 
position.     Now  he  ceased  to  relish  it. 

"  Do  you  not  think,"  said  he  one  day  to  his  secretary,  "  that  there  is  some- 
thing mean  and  humiliating  in  the  words, '  I  have  the  honour,  my  dear  colleague, 
to  be '  ?     I  am  tired  of  it." 


XXXII 

THE    SECOND    STEP    TO    THE    THRONE 

(1801-2) 

T>ONAPARTE,  as  already  intimated,  had  resolved  on  a  reconciliation  with  ( 
-■^  the  Church,  with  the  view  of  securing  an  ally.  He  had  himself  some  sorKl 
of  religious  belief,  but  it  was  of  the  shallowest,  and  confined  to  a  recognition  of  \ 
the  Deity.  "My  reason,"  said  he,  "makes  me  incredulous  respecting  many 
things ;  but  the  impressions  of  my  childhood  and  early  youth  throw  me  into 
uncertainty."  Bourrienne  says,  "  He  readily  yielded  assent  to  all  that  was 
proved  against  religion  as  the  work  of  men  and  time ;  but  he  would  not  hear 
of  materialism.  I  recollect  that  one  fine  night,  when  he  was  on  deck  with  some 
persons  who  were  arguing  in  favour  of  materialism,  Bonaparte  raised  his  hand 
to  heaven,  and  pointing  to  the  stars,  said,  *  You  may  talk  as  long  as  you  please, 
gentlemen,  but  who  made  all  that?'  He  had,  however,  no  belief  in  the 
immortality  of  the  soul.  The  only  immortality  he  thought  of  was  fame.  '  The 
salvation  of  my  soul ! '  he  once  exclaimed.  '  With  me,  immortality  is  the 
recollection  one  leaves  in  the  memory  of  man.  That  idea  prompts  to  great 
actions.  It  would  be  better  for  a  man  never  to  have  lived,  than  to  leave  behind 
him  no  traces  of  his  existence.' " 

At  a  time  when  a  multitude  of  the  luxurious  abbes,  who  had  enjoyed  titles 
and  revenues,  but  had  done  no  work  for  the  Church,  had  fled  the  country,  the 
parish  priests  had  struggled  against  the  prevailing  infidelity,  and  had  maintained 
the  lamp  of  divine  truth,  had  ministered  the  sacraments,  and,  as  soon  as  it  was 
possible,  had  reopened  the  churches.  Some  bishops  had  remained  with  their 
flocks,  and  had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Constitution.  As  soon  as 
the  storm  of  the  Reign  of  Terror  was  over,  they  set  diligently  to  work  to 
reorganise  the  Church  in  France,  with  full  recognition  of  her  old  Gallican 
liberties.  They  had  reconstituted  fifty  dioceses,  and  filled  them  with  prelates 
zealous  and  able  to  distinguish  between  their  religious  and  political  duty.  In 
jthe  year  V.,  four  years  before  the  Concordat,  out  of  40,000  parishes,  32,214  had 
their  churches  reopened,  and  priests  serving  them;  and  4,571  were  asking  for 
:lergy  to  minister  at  their  re-erected  altars.*  The  Constitutional  Church,  as  it 
[was  called,  was  active,  pious,  and  independent  of  political  parties.     It  held  its 

*  Gregoire:  Essai  hist,  sur  les  liberies  de  Viglise  Gallicmie;  also  Mtimoires  de  Gr^goire,  Paris,  1840, 
p.  107. 

253 


254 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


councils,  which  assembled  and  passed  salutary  canons.     The  revived  Gallican 
Church  rejected  all  fees  for  the  ministration  of  sacraments. 

The  independence  of  this  Church  was  regarded  with  jealousy  by  the  Pope, 
who  dreaded,  above  all  things,  the  resurrection  of  Gallican  independence. 
Moreover,  all  the  runaway  abbes  who  returned  clamoured  for  reinstitution. 

Pius  VI.  anathematised  the  reformed  Church  as  heretical,  contrary  to 
Catholic  dogma,  sacrilegious,  and  schismatical.  He  threw  himself  heart  and  soul 
into  the  cause  of  that  wretched  ancient  regime  which  had  consumed  France  like 

a  cancer.  "The  restoration  of  the 
old  system,"  he  wrote,  "  is  the 
sole  object  of  my  thoughts  and 
desires."  The  ex-bishops  wrote 
pastorals  to  the  clergy  and  to 
the  faithful,  forbidding  them  to 
hold  communion  with  the  con- 
stitutional prelates  and  clergy, 
forbidding  burials  to  those  who 
had  received  sacraments  at  their 
hands,  and  declaring  marriages 
performed  by  them  to  be  null 
and  void. 

The  oath,  which  interfered 
in  no  way  with  religion  or  the 
sacerdotal  character,  was  twisted 
by  designing  hands  into  a  sort 
of  abjuration  of  the  Christian 
faith,  which,  it  was  pretended, 
the  Assembly  had  imposed  on 
the  clergy.  The  non  -  jurors 
declared  that  those  who  took  it 
were  apostates,  Judases,  worse 
than  Mohammedans.  Every 
nerve  was  strained  to  rouse  the 
peasantry,  and  goad  the  women 
into  resistance.  "  These  clergy,"  says  the  Marquis  de  Ferrieres  in  his  Memoires, 
"  refuse  to  listen  to  any  arrangement,  and,  by  their  culpable  intrigues,  shut  the 
way  to  all  conciliation;  sacrificing  the  Catholic  religion  to  an  insensate  obstinacy, 
and  to  a  condemnable  attachment  to  riches," 

As  an  instance  of  the  spirit  of  the  papalist  clergy,  may  be  instanced  the 
occasion  of  the  consecration  of  several  bishops  at  S.  Sulpice  in  Paris.  The 
non-jurors  sent  a  footman,  dressed  in  ecclesiastical  garb,  to  present  himself  for 
ordination,  hoping  thereby  to  turn  the  ceremony  into  ridicule.  The  trick  was 
discovered,  and  the  laquais  turned  out  of  the  church. 

The  Catholics  of  France  were  divided  ;  in  some  places  the  Constitutionals 
were  most  numerous,  in  others  the  non-jurors.     Thus,  in  France,  there  existed 


BONAPARTE    IN   CORSICAN    COSTUME. 
From  a  drawing  by  Vigny,  engraved  by  Benoist. 


THE    SECOND    STEP   TO   THE   THRONE         255 

side  by  side  two  Churches,  holding  the  same  faith,  exercising  the  same  apostolic 
ministry,  celebrating  the  same  sacraments,  and  using  the  same  ritual. 

Napoleon  might  have  accepted  an  alliance  with  the  Constitutional  Church 
but  he,  as  well  as  the  Pope,  viewed  it  with  suspicion,  because  of  the  manly 
independence  of  the  clergy  in  it.  He  accordingly  entered  into  negotiation  with 
Pius  VII.  towards  a  settlement  of  the  religious  question.  In  his  notes  dictated 
to  Montholon,  Napoleon  gives  his  reasons  plainly  enough.  He  says  that  his 
object  was  "to  attach  the  clergy  to  the  new  order  of  things,  and  to  break  the 
last  thread  by  which  the  old  dynasty  communicated  with  the  country."  This 
result  would  not  be  obtained  by  an  alliance  with  the  Constitutional  clergy,  but 
it  would  be  a  master-stroke  for  him  to  bring  over  to  his  side  those  who  had 
worked  as  much  for  the  Bourbons  as  for  the  cause  of  religion. 

In  his  conversation  with  Las  Cases  he  was  still  more  explicit.  After 
considering  the  various  courses  he  might  have  adopted,  he  said  that  he  had  to 
choose  between  Catholicism  and  Protestantism,  and  he  added,  "At  the  time,  my 
inclinations  urged  me  to  the  latter."  But,  as  he  said,  "  I  thought  I  should 
sooner  reach  the  grand  result  with  Catholicism.  For,  outside  of  France, 
Catholicism  retained  the  Pope,  and  with  my  influence  and  my  forces  in  Italy, 
I  did  not  despair,  sooner  or  later,  by  one  means  or  another,  of  having  him 
under  my  absolute  control.  Then,  what  an  influence  would  have  been  mine ! 
What  a  lever  in  my  hands  wherewith  to  move  the  world  ! "  Passing  thence  to 
ulterior  projects,  and  to  that  thought  which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  his  gigantic 
and  unrealisable  schemes,  he  said  :  "  If  I  had  returned  a  victor  from  Moscow,  I 
would  have  induced  the  Pope  no  longer  to  regret  his  temporalities,  I  would 
have  erected  him  into  an  idol ;  he  would  have  lived  alongside  of  me.  Paris 
would  have  become  the  capital  of  the  Christian  world,  and  I  would  have 
governed  the  religious  world  as  well  as  the  world  of  politics.  That  would  have 
been  an  additional  means  of  drawing  together  all  the  parts  of  the  empire,  and 
of  keeping  all  outside  in  peace.  My  Councils  would  have  represented  all 
Christendom,  and  the  Popes  would  have  been  merely  the  Presidents.  I  would 
have  opened  and  closed  the  Assemblies,  have  approved  and  published  their 
decisions,  as  did  Constantine  and  Charlemagne."* 

Cardinal  Consalvi  was  sent  by  the  Pope  to  Paris  to  arrange  matters.  He 
arrived  in  June,  1801,  and  was  bullied  and  cajoled.  He  was  ready  to  sanction  a 
great  deal,  if  only  the  germ  of  independence  in  the  Galilean  Church  could  be 
trodden  out ;  and  the  object  he  and  the  Pope  had  at  heart  was,  not  so  much  to 
restore  the  Catholic  Church  as  to  destroy  that  which  was  Gallican,  with  all  its 
liberties,  and  the  energetic  life  which  its  liberty  fostered.  \ 

In  July,  1801,  the  Concordat  was  signed,  but  it  was  not  proclaimed  till  the 
April  of  1802 ;  whereupon  a  solemn  Te  Deum  was  chanted  at  Notre-Dame,  on 
Sunday,  the  nth  of  April. 

Bourrienne  describes  the  function  : — "  The  crowd  was  immense.  ...  It  is 
unquestionably  true  that  a  great  number  of  the  persons  present  at  the  ceremony 
expressed,  in  their  countenance  and  gestures,  a  feeling  of  impatience  and  dis- 
pleasure, rather  than  of  satisfaction,  or  of  reverence  for  the  place  in  which  they 
were.    Here  and  there  murmurs  arose  expressive  of  discontent.    The  whispering, 

*  Memorial  de  Las  Cases.     Ed.  Brux.,  1848. 


256 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


which  I  might  more  properly  call  open  conversation,  often  interrupted  the 
divine  service,  and  sometimes  observations  were  made  which  were  far  from 
being  moderate.  Some  would  turn  their  heads  aside  to  take  a  bit  of  chocolate- 
cake,  and  biscuits  were  openly  eaten  by  many,  who  seemed  to  pay  no  attention 
to  what  was  passing. 

"  The  Consular  Court  was,  in  general,  extremely  irreligious.  Nor  could  it 
be  expected  to  be  otherwise,  being  composed  chiefly  of  those  who  had  assisted 
in  the  annihilation  of  all  religious  worship  in  France,  and  of  men  who,  having 


SIGNATURE   OF   THE  CONCORDAT. 
From  a  drawing  by  Gerard. 

passed  their  lives  in  camps,  had  oftener  entered  a  church  in  Italy  to  carry  off  a 
painting  than  to  hear  mass.  .  .  .  On  the  road  from  the  Tuileries  to  Notre- 
Dame,  Lannes  and  Augereau  wanted  to  alight  from  the  carriage  as  soon  as  they 
saw  they  were  being  driven  to  mass,  and  it  required  an  order  from  the  First 
Consul  to  prevent  their  doing  so.  Next  day  Bonaparte  asked  Augererfu  what 
he  thought  of  the  ceremony.  *  Oh !  it  was  all  very  fine,'  replied  the  General ; 
'  there  was  nothing  wanting,  except  the  millions  of  men  who  have  perished  in 
pulling  down  what  you  are  setting  up.'  Bonaparte  was  much  displeased  at  this 
remark." 

During  the  negotiations  with  the  Pope,  Bonaparte  one   day  said   to   his 


THE   SECOND   STEP   TO   THE   THRONE 


257 


•secretary,  "In  every  country  religion  is  useful  to  the  Government,  and  those  who 
govern  ought  to  avail  themselves  of  it  to  influence  mankind.  In  Egypt  I  was  a 
Mohammedan,  in  France  I  am  a  Catholic.  The  policy  of  the  religion  of  a 
State  should  be  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Sovereign.  Many  people  have 
urged  me  to  found  a  Galilean  Church,  and  make  myself  its  head  ;  but  they  do 
not  know  France.  If  they  did,  they  would  be  aware  that  the  majority  would  not 
like  a  rupture  with  Rome." 

All  the  Constitutional  and 
the  emigres  bishops  received  a 
Papal  brief,  enjoining  them  to 
resign  their  functions ;  and 
Napoleon,  who  by  the  Con- 
cordat held  in  his  hands  the 
nomination  to  the  archbishop- 
rics and  bishoprics  of  France, 
was  prepared  to  enforce  the 
command.  They  therefore,  for 
the  most  part,  obeyed,  the 
Constitutionals  not  without  a 
protest. 

The  institution  of  the 
Legion  of  Honour  excited 
much  more  opposition  than 
the  Concordat.  It  was  thought 
to  be  a  recurrence  to  aristo- 
cratic distinctions,  which  had 
been  abolished  by  the  Revolu- 
tion. It  required  all  the  pres- 
sure that  the  First  Consul 
could  bring  to  bear  on  the 
three  great  bodies  of  the  State 
to  get  them  to  pass  it,  and 
then  he  secured  only  a  narrow 
majority. 

As      Napoleon     observed, 
"  Vanity  is  the  ruling  principle  of  the  French ;  it  was  that  which  lay  at  the 
bottom  of  all    the   convulsions   of  the    Revolution.     It  was  the   sight  of  the 
nobility  enjoying  privileges  and  distinctions  to  which  they  could   not  aspire, 
which  filled  the  Third  Estate  with  inextinguishable  and  natural  animosity." 

But  the  conferring  of  the  rank  of  Chevalier  of  the  Legion  of  Honour  was 
not  the  constitution  of  an  hereditary  caste  ;  it  was  the  honouring  of  individuals  ; 
and  it  was  open  to  the  humblest  of  citizens  to  aspire  to  it.  It  set  before  men 
something  more  noble  than  money-making,  and  that  at  the  public  expense. 

The  opposition  that  Bonaparte  had  met  with,  in  the  Tribunate  especially, 
made  him  very  irritated  with  that  body,  and  he  resolved  to  silence  its  voice. 


THE   FIRST    CONSUL. 
From  a  drawing  by  Gdhotte. 


258        THE    LIFE   OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

According  to  the  Constitution,  the  members  of  the  Tribunate  and  Legislative 
Body  were  renewed  in  a  fifth  of  their  number  every  year,  but  there  was  no- 
provision  as  to  who  were  to  pass  out  each  year.  It  had  hitherto  been  deter- 
mined by  lot ;  but  Napoleon  seized  on  the  opportunity  to  nominate  those  who- 
were  to  leave.  In  the  Tribunate  and  Legislative  Body,  there  were  from  fifteen 
to  twenty  on  whom  he  could  not  reckon,  and  these  he  now  eliminated  from  the 
two  assemblies,  and  the  Senate  nominated,  in  their  room,  men  who  were  creatures 
of  the  First  Consul,  fifteen  generals  or  superior  officers,  and  twenty-five 
functionaries.  By  this  means,  every  vestige  of  representative  government  dis- 
appeared from  these  institutions ;  and  they  became  servile  bodies,  ready  to- 
enregister  the  decrees  of  the  First  Consul,  like  the  adulatory  Senate  of  Rome 
under  the  Caesars. 

The  Peace  of  Amiens  had  been  signed  on  the  27th  March,  1802,  by  Joseph 
Bonaparte  and  Lord  Cornwallis.  England  retained  Ceylon  and  Trinidad,  other 
conquered  colonies  were  to  be  restored  to  France  and  Holland  ;  Malta,  which 
had  been  captured  by  the  British,  was  to  be  made  over  to  a  reconstituted  order 
of  Knights.  Burning  questions  were  passed  over,  running  sores  veiled.  It  was 
obvious  to  all  who  chose  to  consider  the  condition  of  affairs  on  the  Continent^ 
that  this  peace  did  no  more  than  afford  a  breathing-time  for  the  combatants 
to  prepare  for  a  death-grapple.  Napoleon  saw  this  clearer  than  anyone  ;  but  it 
suited  his  purpose  to  posture  as  a  peace-maker.  France,  like  England,  was 
weary  of  war,  it  was  satisfied  with  the  glory  achieved  by  its  arms  ;  it  fondly  ' 
believed  that  its  Chief  Consul  was  likewise  content.  But  with  Bonaparte,  no- 
step  was  taken  without  intention  of  a  further  advance. 

The  Treaty  of  Peace  concluded  at  Amiens  was  not  presented  at  once  to  the 
Legislative  Body ;  its  presentation  was  purposely  delayed. 

When  finally  it  was  produced,  amidst  a  great  flourish  of  trumpets,  and 
glossed  over  with  representations  that  gave  to  it  a  colour  it  did  not  really 
possess,  it  was  proposed  in  the  Tribunate  "  that  to  General  Bonaparte  should  be 
accorded  a  distinguishing  testimony  of  the  national  gratitude."  The  proposal" 
was  at  once  carried,  and  Simeon,  at  the  head  of  a  deputation,  appeared  before 
the  First  Consul  with  the  vote.  He  replied  that  he  required  no  recompense  but 
the  affection  of  his  fellow-citizens.  Life  was  dear  to  him  only  because  of  the 
services  he  could  render  to  his  country,  and  death  would  be  to  him  without 
bitterness  if  happiness  was  as  secured  to  the  Republic  as  was  its  glory. 

The  terms  of  the  vote  were  somewhat  vague,  and  Napoleon  did  not  relish 
them.  The  Senate,  not  to  be  behindhand,  voted  that  he  should  be  invested  with 
the  Consulship  for  ten  years  beyond  the  original  ten,  to  which  it  was  at  first 
limited. 

When  this  was  carried,  and  Bonaparte  learned  the  form  this  "  testimonial 
of  national  gratitude"  had  assumed,  he  was  very  angry.  He  treated  the  offer 
as  an  insult.  Cambaceres  had  tried  hard  to  get  the  Senate  to  vote  for  a 
Consulship  for  life;  but  this  they  were  disinclined  to  grant.  "They  will,. 
perhaps,  make  wry  faces,"  said  Napoleon,  "  but  they  must  come  to  it  at  last."" 

With  a  sudden  affectation  of  diffidence,  he  pretended  that  he  could  not 


THE   SECOND   STEP   TO   THE   THRONE 


259 


accept  the  honour  that  was  being  pressed  on  him,  unless  it  were  the  wish  of 
the  people.  "The  interests  of  my  glory  and  happiness,"  said  he,  "would  seem 
to  have  indicated  that  the  close  of  my  public  life  should  synchronise  with  the 
establishment  of  peace  in  the  world.  But  the  glory  and  happiness  of  the 
citizen  must  give  way  to  the  interests  of  the  State,  and  the  wishes  of  the  public. 
You  Senators  conceive  that  I  owe  to  the  people  another  sacrifice.  I  will  make 
it  on  condition  that  the  voice 
of  the  people  commands  what 
your  suffrage  authorises." 

Many  did  not  read  between 
the  lines  that  he  was  dissatis- 
fied with  what  was  offered, 
and  desired  something  more  ; 
but  this  was  speedily  made 
plain  to  the  Council,  and  they 
obsequiously  agreed  that  the 
proposition  to  be  submitted 
to  a  plebiscite  was  to  be, 
whether  Napoleon  should  be 
invested  with  the  Consulship 
for  life,  with  power  to  nomi- 
nate his  successor. 

Accordingly  on  the  nth 
May,  1802,  the  Moniteur  an- 
nounced that  registers  would 
be  opened  in  all  the  Mairies, 
in  the  offices  of  Justice,  to 
receive  the  votes  of  the  people 
on  the  question,  "Shall  Na- 
poleon Bonaparte  be  elected 
Consul  for  life  ? '' 

The  result  of  this  appeal 
was  announced  by  a  Senatus 
Consultum,  on  August  2.  It 
appeared  that  out  of  3,557,885 
citizens  who  had  voted, 
3,368,259  votes  were  in  the  affirmative.  And  the  rapid  rise  of  that  barometer, 
the  Funds,  when  the  result  was  declared,  showed  that  the  nation  felt  confidence 
in  the  man  it  invested  with  such  power,  to  whom,  as  Napoleon  himself  said,  it 
had  offered  a  blank  cheque.  The  Funds,  which  had  been  as  low  as  eight  before 
the  1 8th  Brumaire,  rose  to  sixteen  directly  after,  and  then  leaped  to  fifty-two. 

With  such  evidence  as  that,  he  was  not  to  blame ;  he  might  well  conceive 
that  the  national  instinct  had  fixed  on  him,  as  the  only  man  capable  of  giving 
peace  and  prosperity  to  France. 

And  had  Napoleon,  on  his  elevation  to  the  Consulate  for  life,  turned  his 


THE   FIRST  CONSUL. 
By  Boilly. 


26o        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

attention  primarily  to  internal  organisation  on  a  sound  basis — that  of  repre- 
sentative government — he  would  for  ever  have  been  esteemed  as  the  greatest 
benefactor  France  had  seen.  And  surely,  to  have  lifted  his  country  into  ease, 
and  given  her  rest  from  her  enemies  round  about,  to  have  consolidated  the 
institutions,  the  foundations  of  which  had  been  already  laid,  would  have  been 
sufficient  for  a  man  of  generous  aspirations.  But,  unfortunately  for  France, 
for  Europe,  for  himself,  he  was  devoured  by  the  fever  of  an  evil  ambition. 
He  had  used  the  Peace  of  Amiens  as  a  means  for  obtaining  the  Consulship 
for  life.  No  sooner  was  he  invested  with  this,  than  he  proceeded  to  kick  over 
the  stool. 


XXXIII 

PREPARATIONS    FOR    WAR 

(1803) 

T  TATRED  of  England  had  been  for  some  time  growing  to  a  frenzy  in  the 
^  ^  breast  of  Bonaparte.  England  had  stood  in  the  way  at  Acre,  and  had 
diverted  him  from  the  accomplishment  of  his  fondest  and  grandest  conception. 
"  My  projects,  my  dreams,"  said  he  to  Junot  one  day  bitterly,  in  reference  to  his 
Syrian  campaign,  "  England  destroyed  them  all."  England  had  broken  up  the 
French  fleet  in  Aboukir  Bay,  and  cut  his  communications  with  France.  England 
had  recently  defeated  the  relics  of  his  army  in  Egypt,  had  forced  it  to  capitulate ; 
and  Egypt,  the  corner-stone  of  his  Empire  of  the  World,  was  lost.  Malta,  that 
was  all-important  for  supremacy  in  the  Mediterranean,  had  been  taken  as  well. 
England  harboured,  and,  as  he  insultingly  proclaimed,  paid,  the  assassins  deputed 
— so  his  police  informed  him,  and  he  believed — to  take  his  life  by  dagger,  poison, 
or  infernal  machine.  And  England  finally  harboured  the  writers  of  pamphlets, 
and  editors  of  papers,  and  designers  of  caricatures,  that  maligned,  exposed, 
ridiculed  him. 

He  had  strangled  the  Press  in  France.  Of  the  thirteen  newspapers  licensed 
after  the  i8th  Brumaire,  five  had  since  been  throttled.*  Now  he  savagely 
insisted  that  the  Press  should  be  silenced  in  England  as  well,  as  far  as  it  treated 
of  him  and  France,  whilst  he  poured  forth  unrestrained  abuse  of  Great  Britain, 
through  the  channel  of  his  own  organ,  the  Moniteur. 

In  England,  the  Ministry  of  Mr.  Addington  was  in  possession,  seeking  by 
all  means  to  stave  off  war,  ready  to  make  the  utmost  compromise  consistent 
with  the  national  honour.  In  June,  1802,  about  two  months  after  the  signature 
of  the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  Merry,  the  charge  daffaires  in  Paris,  notified  the 
Government  that  the  First  Consul  was  again  complaining  of  the  attacks  to 
which  he  was  subjected  on  the  part  of  the  English  Press.  Napoleon  then 
required  of  Otto,  his  Minister  at  the  Court  in  London,  to  demand  that  (i)  the 
English  Government  should  adopt  the  most  effectual  measures  to  put  a  stop  to 
the  unbecoming  and  seditious  publications,  with  which  newspapers  and  pam- 
phlets printed  in  England  were  filled ;    (2)  that  the  emigres  living  in  Jersey, 

*  No  book  was  allowed  to  be  published  till  it  had  been  seven  days  in  the  hands  of  the  police.  The 
play  of  Edward  in  Scotland  was  banished  the  boards,  because  it  mentioned  the  exile  of  John  Balliol,  and 
this  might  be  thought  to  refer  to  the  Bourbons, 

261 


262        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


who  were  believed  to  send  over  batches  of  these  publications  to  France,  should 
be  expelled  the  island  ;  (3)  that  George  Cadoudal  and  other  Vendeeans  should  be 
transported  to  Canada ;  (4)  that  the  Bourbon  Princes  should  be  ordered  to  leave 
the  British  Isles ;  (5)  that  all  such  emigres  as  wore  orders  and  decorations 
belonging  to  the  old  French  dynasty  should  also  be  driven  out  of  the  British 
Empire.  These  extravagant  demands  were  tantamount  to  ordering  the  English 
Government  to  abandon  the  Constitution,  by  the  sacrifice  of  its  main  props,  the 
liberty  of  the  Press,  and  the  privilege  of  habeas  corpus. 

Lord  Hawkesbury,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  replied  in  a  courteous  note 
that  this  was  not  possible  for  the  Government  to  grant ;  but  pointed  out  that  it 


THE    FIRST   CONSUL   AT   THE    HOTEL   DE    VILLE. 
From  a  drawing  by  David. 

was  open  to  them  to  prosecute  the  principal  offenders,  if  they  transgressed  what 
was  tolerable  in  their  attacks,  and  that  the  French  Government  had  it  in  its 
power  to  stop  the  circulation  of  the  objectionable  papers  in  France.  It  agreed  to 
send  Cadoudal  to  Canada,  but  declined  otherwise  to  transgress  the  laws  of 
hospitality  accorded  to  refugees. 

Then  Bonaparte  demanded  the  instant  evacuation  of  Malta,  Alexandria,  and 
the  Cape,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  whilst  himself  trans- 
gressing its  spirit  by  riveting  the  chains  with  which  he  held  down  Switzerland, 
and  the  letter  as  well  by  continuing  to  occupy  Holland.  The  English  Govern- 
ment immediately  sent  orders  for  the  evacuation  of  the  three  places  named,  and 
this  evacuation  was  in  process  of  execution  when,  through  the  violence  of 
Napoleon,  the  rupture  was  precipitated,  and  he  lost  the  advantages  he  would 
have  gained  by  the  delay  of  a  few  weeks. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR   WAR 


263 


The  rupture  was  provoked  first  by  the  publication  in  the  Moniteur  of  the 
report  of  Colonel  Sebastiani  on  the  condition  of  the  defences  of  the  fortified 
places  in  Egypt  and  Syria,  and  of  the  state  of  the  English  forces  there.  It  was 
stuffed  with  insinuations  of  the  most  offensive  character. 

Finally,  in  an  interview  with  Lord  Whitworth,  the  English  ambassador, 
Bonaparte  flew  into  a  violent  passion,  poured  forth  a  torrent  of  abuse,  and  Lord 
Whitworth  at  one  moment  believed  that  the  First  Consul  was  about  to  strike 
him  in  the  face.  This  led  to  the  presentation  of  an  ultimatum,  which,  not  being 
accepted,  the  English  ambassador  asked  for  his  passports  and  withdrew.  This 
was  on  the  12th  May,  and  the  French  ambassador  embarked  at  Dover  on  the 
1 8th. 

On  the  22nd,  Napoleon  ordered  the  arrest  of  all  English,  between  the  ages 
of  eighteen  and  sixty  years,  then  travelling  in  France.  Madame  Junot,  in  her 
Memoirs,     gives     a     graphic 

of 


the 


condition 


ENGLISH    PLUM-PUDDING   MENACED. 
From  a  caricature  by  Gillray. 


account   of 

excitement    in   which    Bona- 
parte was  at  the  time. 

Junot  was  then  Governor 
of  Paris.  He  was  sent  for 
by  the  First  Consul  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,  who  put 
the  order  into  his  hands  re- 
quiring the  execution  of  the 
unprecedented  measure. 

His  eyes  flashed  fire  ;  his 
whole  figure  was  trembling 
with  agitation. 

"Junot,"  said  he,  "you 
must,  before  an  hour  elapses, 
take    measures    so    that    all 

the  English,  without  one  single  exception,  shall  be  arrested.  The  prisons  will 
hold  them  ;  they  must  be]  seized."  And,  with  these  words,  he  struck  the  table 
violently  with  his  fist. 

"  This  measure,"  said  Napoleon,  "  must  be  executed  at  seven  in  the  evening. 
I  am  resolved  that  in  the  obscurest  theatre,  or  the  lowest  restaurant  in  Paris,  not 
an  Englishman  shall  this  night  be  seen." 

Junot  in  vain  attempted  remonstrance.  He  pointed  out  that  such  an  order 
would  cover  with  ignominy  all  concerned  in  the  execution.  Bonaparte  refused 
to  listen. 

Under  this  decree,  above  ten  thousand  English  travellers  and  merchants 
were  at  once  incarcerated,  and  many  did  not  escape  for  eleven  years. 

The  Annual  Register  says  hereon,  "The  Great  Consul,  like  a  politic  shep- 
herd, continues  removing  the  pen  of  his  bleating  English  flock  from  spot  to 
spot,  well  knowing  that  the  soil  will  everywhere  be  enriched  by  their  temporary 
residence." 


264        THE    LIFE   OF   NAPOLEON   BONAPARTE 

The  infamy  of  the  proceeding  was  the  greater  in  that,  only  a  few  days 
before,  the  French  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  had  given  the  English  in  Paris 
an  assurance  that  they  would  be  permitted  to  leave  the  realm  unmolested. 
Napoleon's  own  account  of  this  proceeding,  as  given  to  Las  Cases,  is  deserving 
of  notice. 

"  The  more  novel  the  act  was,  the  more  flagrant  the  injustice  committed,  the 
more  it  answered  my  purpose.  The  clamour  it  raised  was  universal,  and,  all  the 
English  addressed  themselves  to  me.  I  referred  them  to  their  own  Government, 
telling  them  that  their  fate  depended  on  it  alone." 

It  is  probable  that  the  order  was  issued  in  one  of  those  unreasoning  bursts  of 
fury  to  which  he  was  liable,  and  in  which  he  often  gave  the  most  sanguinary  or 
outrageous  orders,  which,  happily,  those  about  him  on  those  occasions  as  often 
failed  to  execute,  or  delayed  executing,  till  his  judgment  had  recovered  sway. 
When,  however,  one  of  these  orders  had  been  carried  out,  his  pride  forbade  its 
withdrawal,  and  made  him  seek  justification  for  his  conduct. 

Such  an  excuse  has  been  offered  for  the  murder  of  the  Due  d'Enghien,  but  it 
will  not  hold. 

The  circumstances  are  well  known.  Napoleon  had  been  led  by  spies  to 
believe  that  the  young  Duke,  then  on  Baden  territory,  was  acting  in  concert 
with  Pichegru  and  other  conspirators.  Fouche  had  been  dismissed  from  office, 
and  was  out  of  favour  with  Napoleon.  He  was  anxious  to  recover  his  lost  posi- 
tion, and  for  this  purpose  set  his  agents  industriously  to  work  to  manufacture  a 
plot.  Material  was  abundant ;  and,  by  means  of  agents  provocateurs,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  drawing  on  a  certain  number  of  Royalists  to  conspire  to  enter  France 
from  England,  and  there  agitate  for  the  Bourbon  cause.  They  landed  on  the 
French  coast  on  January  i6th,  1804,  and  made  their  way  to  Paris. 

Fouche  had  led  them  to  believe  that  Moreau  would  join  them.  The  Duke  of 
Enghien,  son  of  the  Due  de  Bourbon,  and  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  great 
Conde,  was  at  this  time  at  the  chateau  of  Eltenheim,  in  the  territories  of  the 
Duke  of  Baden,  where  he  amused  himself  with  hunting.  He  had  been  privately 
married  to  the  Princess  Charlotte  de  Rohan,  to  whom  he  was  passionately 
attached.  The  gallant  character  of  the  Prince,  his  military  reputation,  had  made 
him  a  favourite  with  many  officers  and  men  in  the  army.  His  name,  as  the  last 
scion  of  the  family  of  the  great  Conde,  gave  him  prestige. 

Napoleon  was  determined  to  make  a  signal  example,  when  told  of  the  plot 
of  Pichegru,  Cadoudal,  and  his  fellows,  and  when  Fouche,  trading  on  his 
nervous  terrors,  assured  him  that  "  the  air  was  full  of  daggers." 

To  accomplish  this,  he  ordered  the  arrest  of  the  young  Duke,  though  on 
neutral  territory,  and  that  he  should  be  brought  to  Paris. 

Cambaceres,  the  Second  Consul,  who  saw  that  such  a  violation  of  neutral 
territory  and  the  meditated  execution  of  the  Prince,  would  create  a  great 
revulsion  of  feeling  against  Napoleon,  earnestly  entreated  him  to  forbear  pro- 
ceeding to  extremes,  but  was  cut  short  with  a  bitter  scoff,  "You  have  become 
singularly  chary  of  the  blood  of  the  Bourbons,"  an  allusion  to  Cambaceres 
having  voted  for  the  death  of  Louis  XVI. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR   WAR 


265 


The  Duke  was  captured,  conveyed  to  Strasburg,  and  intelligence  telegraphed 
to  Napoleon,  who  ordered  that  he  should  at  once  be  brought  to  the  capital. 

"I  am  resolved,"  said  Bonaparte,  "to  put  an  end  to  these  conspiracies.  If 
the  emigrants  will  conspire,  I  will  cause  them  to  be  shot.  I  am  told  that  there 
are  some  of  them  concealed  in  the  hotel  of  M.  de  Cobentzell "  (the  Austrian 
Minister).  "  I  do  not  believe  it.  If  it  were  so,  I  would  shoot  Cobentzell  along 
with  them.  The  Bourbons  must  be  taught  that  they  are  not,  with  impunity,  to 
sport  with  life.     Such  matters  are  not  child's  play." 


^^^^ 

'   ^#k; 

BONAPARTE  AS   FIRST  CONSUL. 
After  Nadet. 


This  belief  in  being  surrounded  by  assassins,  this  constant  terror  lest  he 
should  be  attacked  by  them,  was  a  remarkable  feature  in  Bonaparte's  mental 
condition.  It  resembles  the  ever-present  fear  of  Nero,  and  is,  in  certain  cases, 
an  indication  of  derangement.  There  were  no  plots  to  assassinate  him,  except 
that  one  with  the  infernal  machine.  All  the  rest  were  inventions  of  Fouche, 
who  had  discovered  how  timorous  his  master  was.  Akin  to  this  dread  of 
assassination  was  the  nervous  mistrust  with  which  he  treated  even  his  most 
devoted  friends. 

When  Josephine  heard  of  the  arrest  of  the  Due  d'Enghien,  she  interceded 
for  him  personally,  but  in  vain. 

"  In  politics,"  said  Napoleon  to  her,  "a  death  destined  to  give  repose  is  not  a 
crime.     The  orders  have  been  given.     There  is  no  possibility  of  retreat." 


266        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Bonaparte,  indeed,  as  soon  as  he  heard  that  the  Prince  had  been  secured, 
had  sent  orders  that  he  should  be  conveyed  to  Vincennes,  and  lodged  in  the 
castle.  His  aide-de-camp  was,  at  the  same  time,  sent  to  the  Governor  of  Paris, 
with  instructions  to  summon  a  special  Council  of  War,  consisting  of  seven 
members,  and  Murat  was  ordered  to  execute  the  purpose  of  his  brother-in-law. 

To  his  brother  Joseph  he  spoke  on  the  matter  with  cold-blooded  candour  : — 

"  I  cannot  repent  of  my  decision  with  regard  to  the  Due  d'Enghien.  This 
was  the  only  means  I  had  of  leaving  no  doubt  as  to  my  real  intentions,  and  of 
annihilating  the  hopes  of  the  partisans  of  the  Bourbons.  Then  I  cannot 
conceal  the  fact  that  I  shall  never  be  tranquil  on  the  throne  so  long  as  a  single 
Bourbon  exists,  and  this  Bourbon  is  one  the  less.  It  is  what  remains  of  the 
blood  of  the  great  Conde,  the  last  heir  of  the  finest  name  of  that  house.  He 
was  young,  brilliant,  brave,  and  consequently  my  most  redoubtable  enemy. 
The  sacrifice  was  necessary  to  my  safety  and  grandeur.  .  .  .  Not  only  if  what  I 
have  done  were  still  to  be  done,  would  I  do  it  again,  but  if  I  had  an  opportunity 
to-morrow  of  getting  rid  of  the  last  two  scions  of  that  family  "  (the  two  sons  of 
the  Due  d'Artois),  "  I  would  not  allow  it  to  escape." 

The  circumstances  of  the  murder  are  too  well  known  to  be  entered  into 
here — how  the  Governor  of  Vincennes  was  required  to  dig  a  grave  before  the 
Duke  was  brought  to  trial  ;  how  that  no  evidence  was  produced  against  the 
accused,  but  a  hasty  form  of  trial  hurried  through  in  the  night,  and  sentence 
pronounced  and  executed  forthwith  in  the  moat  of  the  castle  by  lantern  light, 
while  Savory  stood  on  the  bank  looking  on,  to  make  sure  that  the  execution  was 
completed. 

"When  about  to  make  himself  Emperor,"  says  Madame  de  Stael,  "Napoleon 
deemed  it  necessary,  on  the  one  hand,  to  dissipate  the  apprehensions  of  the 
Revolutionary  party  as  to  the  return  of  the  Bourbons  ;  and  to  prove,  on  the 
other,  to  the  Royalists,  that  when  they  attached  themselves  to  him,  they  broke 
finally  with  the  ancient  dynasty.  It  was  to  accomplish  that  double  object  that 
he  committed  the  murder  of  a  prince  of  the  blood,  the  Duke  d'Enghien." 

He  was  preparing  to  have  himself  proclaimed  Emperor,  and,  before  doing 
so,  sought  to  gratify  the  Jacobins.  That  may  have  been  one  reason,  but  it  is 
more  probable  that  it  was  an  act  of  insensate  panic. 

That  some  of  his  Ministers  were  eager  for  the  murder  can  scarce  be  doubted, 
from  the  precipitation  with  which  the  order  was  carried  out.  This  was  not 
always  the  case.  When  he  wished  to  shoot  such  an  unimportant  personage  as 
the  Prince  of  Hatzfeld,  in  Berlin,  in  1806,  those  around  the  Emperor  were 
resolved  it  should  not  be  done.  Certainly  Savary,  and,  above  all,  Talleyrand, 
were  determined  to  have  the  Duke  killed,  as  a  necessary  step  to  the  Imperial 
crown.  Talleyrand  was  visiting,  that  same  night,  at  the  house  of  Madame 
de  Laval,  listlessly  reclining  in  an  arm-chair.  He  took  out  his  watch,  and,  with- 
out showing  any  emotion,  said,  "At  this  moment  the  last  of  the  Condes  has 
ceased  to  exist ! "  Three  days  after  he  gave  a  ball,  and  when  he  was  asked  why, 
if  he  disapproved  of  the  murder,  he  did  not  resign  his  post,  his  laconic  answer 
was,  "  Because  the  First  Consul  committed  a  crime,  that  is  no  reason  why  I 
should  commit  a  folly." 


PREPARATIONS    FOR   WAR  267 

The  conspiracy  in  which  George  Cadoudal,  Pichegru,  and  the  Poh'gnacs  were 
•engaged,  or  asserted  to  be  engaged,  was  largely  got  up  by  Fouche.  Pichegru 
was  found  garotted  in  prison.  It  was  asserted  that  he  had  committed  suicide, 
which  was  improbable.  He  was  resolved  to  speak  out  very  plainly  when 
summoned  before  the  tribunal.  It  was  whispered  that  Napoleon  had  sent  four 
of  his  Mamelukes,  brought  out  of  Egypt,  to  strangle  him.  An  Englishman  who 
was  implicated,  Captain  Wright,  was  also  found  a  few  days  later  in  prison  with 
his  throat  cut,  and  this  also  was  asserted  to  have  been  a  case  of  suicide.  There 
is  not  evidence  sufficient  to  enable  a  judgment  to  be  formed  as  to  how  Pichegru 
<:ame  by  his  death.  In  an  open  court,  the  examination  of  Pichegru  would  have 
revealed  the  entire  innocence  of  the  Due  d'Enghien,  and  that  would  have  been 
inconvenient.  Moreover,  he  was  in  possession  of  important  secrets,  relative  to 
the  13th  Vendemiaire  and  the  i8th  Fructidor,  that  deeply  concerned  the  First 
Consul,  and  which,  if  made  public,  might  have  injured  him  in  the  minds  of  the 
people.  Pichegru  had  been  so  imprudent  as  to  say  in  England  that,  if  he  found 
an  opportunity  of  speaking  in  public  on  his  return  to  France,  he  would  make 
use  of  these  facts ;  and  this  had  been  reported  to  Bonaparte.  When  Napoleon 
gave  orders  for  his  arrest,  he  had  said,  "  If  he  resist,  kill  him  !  " 

When  Talleyrand  was  asked  what  he  thought  of  the  death,  he  drily  replied, 
"  It  was  very  sudden,  but  very  opportune." 

The  pretence  was  made  by  the  police  that  George  Cadoudal  intended  to 
assassinate  the  First  Consul.  This  he  strictly  and  positively  denied.  He  and 
the  others  in  the  plot  did  indeed  desire  a  Bourbon  restoration,  and  intended 
working  for  it,  but  not  with  a  poignard.  Twenty  of  the  conspirators  were 
sentenced  to  death,  but  the  execution  was  only  accomplished  on  twelve.  The 
gentlemen  had  their  sentence  commuted  to  imprisonment.  Desperate  attempts 
were  made  to  implicate  Moreau  in  the  conspiracy,  but  no  evidence  worth  a  rush 
was  forthcoming. 

He  was  arrested,  and  put  on  his  trial.  One  of  the  principal  witnesses  relied 
on  was  Picot,  the  valet  of  Cadoudal.  His  evidence  was  drawn  from  him  by 
torture.  But  on  trial,  he  recanted,  and  held  up  his  hands,  covered  with  bruises 
from  the  thumbscrew.  Although  the  jury  had  been  suspended,  and  the  bench 
of  judges  packed  with  men  aware  that  Bonaparte  was  determined  on  the 
destruction  of  Moreau,  and  although  they  had  been  solemnly  assured  that 
Bonaparte  would  pardon  him,  if  they  returned  a  verdict  of  guilty,  and  sentenced 
him  to  death,  still  the  majority  refused  to  find  Moreau  guilty  of  the  crimes 
imputed  to  him,  but  unproved.  Clavier,  one  of  the  judges,  when  told  that  the 
First  Consul  would  pardon  the  accused,  if  condemned,  answered,  "  Yes ;  but 
who  will  pardon  us  ? "  In  the  end,  a  compromise  was  agreed  to,  and  Moreau  was 
sentenced  to  two  years'  imprisonment. 

When  this  was  communicated  to  Napoleon,  he  flew  into  a  passion — a 
passion  which  makes  one  doubt  the  assertion  that  he  would  have  spared  his 
rival  had  he  been  condemned  to  death.  A  few  days  later,  when  Lacombe,  one 
of  the  judges  who  had  long  maintained  the  innocence  of  Moreau,  presented 
himself  at  the  Tuileries  with  his  colleagues,  Bonaparte  advanced  towards  him, 


268        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

and    violently    exclaimed,    "  How    dare    you    sully    my    palace    with    your 
presence  ?  " 

What  Napoleon  required  rather  than  the  life  of  Moreau,  was  that  a  stigma 
of  treason  to  his  country  should  attach  to  his  name,  and  so  destroy  his 
popularity  with  the  army,  and  the  impotent  conclusion  of  the  trial  hardly 
succeeded  in  doing  what  he  desired. 

The  sentence  was  changed  into  one  of  banishment,  and  Moreau  left  France. 

Jealous  of  Moreau's  abilities,  Napoleon  was  not :  he  knew  him  to  be  able, 
but  lacking  in  energy;  but  jealous  of  the  favour  in  which  he  stood  with  the 
soldiers,  and  the  respect  with  which  he  was  regarded  by  the  officers,  that  he 
certainly  was. 

Having  spoken  of  the  murder  of  the  Due  d'Enghien,  and  the  supposed 
suicide  of  Pichegru,  it  may  be  as  well  here  to  mention  some  other  cases  of 
mysterious  deaths,  of  which  Napoleon  is  believed  to  have  been  guilty.  As 
already  mentioned.  Captain  Wright,  who  had  disembarked  three  Royalist 
refugees  in  France,  was  taken.  Napoleon  at  once,  without  a  particle  of  evidence, 
concluded  that  these  were  assassins  in  the  pay  of  the  British  Government.  He 
wrote  from  Ostend  on  the  14th  August,  1804,  to  Talleyrand,  "We  have 
obtained  the  proof  (!  !)  that  he  was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  Lord  Hawkesbury 
by  the  Admiralty,  which  had  no  idea  of  the  duty  he  was  intended  for ;  gallant 
officers  like  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  would  not  have  suffered  the  English 
Navy  to  be  thus  dishonoured.  We  are  convinced  that  this  dishonourable  act 
is  the  personal  affair  of  this  officer  Wright  and  of  Lord  Hawkesbury,  who 
himself  drew  ;^40,ooo  out  of  the  Treasury  as  the  price  of  this  crime.  ...  It  is 
for  posterity  to  affix  the  brand  of  infamy  on  Lord  Hawkesbury  and  those 
cowards  who  have  adopted  assassination  and  crime  as  a  means  of  war." 

Wright  was  found  with  his  throat  cut  in  prison,  and  the  razor  which  had 
cut  it  folded  at  his  side.  He  had  been  heard  the  night  before  playing  his  flute, 
and  was  cheerful,  anticipating  his  exchange.  The  gravest  doubts  remain  as 
to  the  possibility  of  this  having  been  a  case  of  suicide.  It  seems  likely  that 
he  was  put  to  death  in  prison,  because  no  evidence  sufficient  to  convict  him 
was  producible,  although  Napoleon  was  firmly  convinced  of  his  guilt. 

The  extraordinary,  and  to  this  day  mysterious,  disappearance  of  Mr. 
Bathurst  was,  at  the  time,  attributed  to  Napoleon,  who  carried  off  Sir 
G.  Rumbold  from  Hamburg,  and  confined  him  in  the  Temple.  Bathurst  had 
been  sent  on  a  secret  embassy  from  the  English  Government  to  the  Court 
of  the  Emperor  Francis,  early  in  1809.  Napoleon  was  extremely  anxious  to 
ascertain  what  communications  were  passing  between  Vienna  and  London, 
and  on  the  way  back  from  the  Austrian  capital,  as  he  neared  the  Hanoverian 
frontier,  then  occupied  by  the  French,  Bathurst  was  spirited  away,  and  was 
never  seen  or  heard  of  again.  The  case  of  Villeneuve  is  more  compromising. 
After  the  battle  of  Trafalgar,  which  he  had  lost,  he  was  landed  at  Morlaix,  and 
proceeded  on  his  way  to  Paris,  in  order  to  demand  that  a  court-martial  should 
be  held  on  his  conduct.  He  had  engaged  the  English  against  his  judgment, 
and  solely  because  obliged  to  do  so  by  express  written  orders  from  Napoleon. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR   WAR  269 

On  reaching  Rennes,  he  was  found  in  his  room  stabbed  in  six  places.  Two 
of  the  wounds  were  mortal ;  so  that  if  this  were  a  case  of  suicide,  Villeneuve 
must  have  stabbed  himself  at  least  once  after  having  received  a  mortal  blow, 
and  then  have  thrown  the  dagger  away,  as  it  was  picked  up  at  a  distance  from 
his  body.  It  was  pretended  that  a  letter  was  found  on  the  table,  in  which 
lie  bade  farewell  to  his  wife,  and  announced  his  purpose  of  destroying  himself, 
but  the  widow  could  never  obtain  a  sight  of  this  letter,  and  no  traces  of  the 
original  have  ever  been  found.  A  strong  suspicion  existed  that  Napoleon  had 
ordered  the  assassination,  lest  at  a  court-martial  Villeneuve  should  produce 
his  order,  and  so  reveal  that  Napoleon  himself  was  to  blame  for  the  disaster 
•of  Trafalgar.  On  the  very  day  of  the  Admiral's  death,  a  letter  from  the 
Emperor  to  Decres  ordered,  "  Send  Admiral  Villeneuve  home,  with  orders  to 
remain  quietly  in  Provence  until  his  exchange  can  be  effected."  This  letter  is 
in  itself  suspicious.  It  is  inconsistent  with  the  character  of  Napoleon's  com- 
munications after  a  disaster.  It  shows  no  resentment  at  all,  and  it  makes 
no  mention  of  the  court-martial  which  the  Admiral  demanded.  The  letter 
looks  suspiciously  like  an  attempt  made  to  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the 
public. 

The  Peace  of  Amiens  having  been  torn  up,  Bonaparte  directed  all  his  thoughts 
to  the  prosecution  of  the  war  with  England. 

"  All  who  had  an  opportunity  of  closely  studying  the  character  of  Napoleon 
knew,"  says  Mme.  Junot,  "  that  the  predominating  desire  of  his  mind  was  the 
humiliation  of  England.  It  was  his  constant  object;  and  during  the  fourteen 
years  of  his  power,  during  which  I  was  able  to  observe  his  actions  and  their 
motives,  I  knew  his  determination  to  be  firmly  fixed  upon  affording  to  France 
the  glory  of  conquering  a  rival  who  never  engaged  upon  equal  terms ;  and  all 
his  measures  had  reference  to  the  same  end." 

The  loss  of  Egypt  to  him  was  a  most  bitter  disappointment. 

Napoleon's  resentment  against  England  partook  of  the  vendetta  spirit  of  his 
Oorsican  compatriots.  To  punish  England — to  cripple,  if  not  to  crush  her — 
became  to  him  a  sacred  duty,  and  to  that  he  devoted  the  rest  of  his  days  of 
power.  He  had  resolved  on  a  rupture,  whilst  engaged  in  discussing  the  terms  of 
peace  ;  but  he  needed  time  to  prepare  the  minds  of  the  French  for  a  fresh  launch 
into  warfare. 

France  had  but  just  acquired  tranquillity,  and  was  tasting  its  advantages. 
To  ruffle  the  calm,  to  let  loose  the  dogs  of  war,  to  increase  taxation,  would  be 
•eminently  unpopular.  Therefore  it  was  necessary  for  Napoleon  to  provoke  a 
war  fever  in  those  who  had  but  one  desire — to  be  allowed  to  enjoy  the  sweets  of 
peace. 

To  lash  the  French  into  fury,  such  as  consumed  himself,  was  his  first 
undertaking.  Violent,  abusive  articles  appeared  in  the  papers — fictitious  letters 
from  correspondents  in  England,  but  actually  written  in  Paris — describing  the 
weakness  of  the  British  Empire,  the  contests  of  parties  equally  balanced,  the 
tyranny  exercised  by  the  nobility  over  the  poor,  and  by  the  Protestants  over 
the  Catholics  in  Ireland.    Absurd  charges  against  England,  such  as  having  flung 


270        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

plague-infected  bales  of  goods  on  the  French  coast,  were  seriously  published. 
The  incompetence  of  the  English  generals,  the  inefficiency  of  her  armies,  the 
incapacity  of  her  Ministers,  and  the  insanity  of  her  King,  were  all  dilated  on,  so 
as  to  induce  such  as  read  these  journals  to  believe  that  the  conquest  of  England 
would  be  easy. 

Then  the  legion  of  officials  was  set  to  work  to  stimulate  enthusiasm  for  war. 
All  the  organs  of  public  opinion  had  been  silenced,  all  the  channels  had  been 
choked  by  means  of  which  the  truth  could  reach  the  ears  of  Frenchmen.  Cen- 
tralization had  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  First  Consul  the  thread  by  means  of 
which  he  set  the  whole  vast  organisation  of  the  Bureau  in  motion  throughout 
the  land. 

And  now  might  be  seen  an  immediate  result  of  the  Concordat.  The 
bishops  had  become  the  religious /r^^j  of  Bonaparte.  A  circular  addressed  to 
them  on  7th  June,  1803,  ordered  that  prayers  should  be  offered  up  in  all  churches 
that  the  French  arms  might  be  successful  in  the  war  against  the  King  of 
England,  "  who  violated  the  faith  of  treaties,  in  refusing  to  surrender  Malta  to 
the  Order  of  S.  John  of  Jerusalem."  Napoleon  trusted  to  the  shortness  of  the 
memory  of  the  bishops  ;  he  hoped  that  they  had  forgotten  that  it  was  he  who 
had  snatched  Malta  from  the  hands  of  the  Order  of  Knights. 

Many  of  the  bishops  thus  addressed,  as  refugees  had  been  given  an  asylum 
in  England,  and  more  than  that,  had  been  allowed  each  an  income  of  ;;^2  5o; 
they  had  been  accorded  the  kindliest  and  most  generous  hospitality  during  ten 
years.  This  was  all  forgotten  now,  and  they  preached  a  Holy  War  against  the 
heretics,  who  withheld  the  rock  of  Malta  from  the  Church. 

Next  came  invitations  to  contributions  for  the  war.  The  Senate,  from  their 
salaries,  undertook  to  provide  a  ship,  and  the  Communes  were  expected  volun- 
tarily to  furnish  men  and  money.  Napoleon  was  afraid  to  impose  too  onerous 
a  burden  on  the  French ;  he  therefore  had  recourse  to  his  old  plan  of  forcing 
other  and  feeble  States  to  pay  for  it. 

The  unhappy  Cisalpine  Republic  was  constrained  to  grant  an  annual  subsidy 
of  over  100,000,000  francs. 

As  soon  as  war  was  declared,  Napoleon  occupied  Hanover,  on  the  pretext  of 
its  dynastic  connexion  with  England ;  and  forced  it  to  supply  3000  horses,  and 
maintain  30,000  French  soldiers. 

Naples  was  at  peace  with  France;  it  had  concluded  a  treaty.  French  troops 
were,  however,  ordered  to  enter  the  kingdom,  garrison  fortresses,  and  demand 
that  a  large  body  of  men  should  be  equipped  and  paid  by  the  King  of  Naples, 
and  furnished  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war. 

Holland  would  have  been  but  too  grateful  to  have  escaped  further  exaction. 
It  had  been  cruelly  drained  under  the  excuse  of  protection.  It  was  now 
required  to  furnish  five  men-of-war,  five  frigates,  100  gunboats,  carrying  from 
three  to  four  hundred  cannon,  250  flat-bottomed  boats,  and  several  hundred 
vessels  of  transport.  Such  was  the  financial  exhaustion  of  the  Batavian 
Republic  that  Bonaparte  knew  it  was  useless  to  exact  of  it  any  more  coin. 

Switzerland,  also  protected  by  France — against  no  enemy  menacing  it — was 


PREPARATIONS    FOR   WAR 


271 


a  poor  country,  and  could  supply  but  little  money ;  it  possessed,  however, 
hardy  men,  and  by  a  convention,  signed  at  Freiburg  on  the  27th  September, 
1803,  Switzerland  was  required  to  furnish  an  army  of  16,000  men,  and  a  reserve 
of  4000  in  addition.  It  was  further  stipulated  that  in  the  event  of  an  attack  by 
England  on  French  territory,  the  contingent  should  be  increased  to  28,000 
men. 

Next  in  turn  came  Spain  and  Portugal.  The  former  was  obliged  to  pay 
6,000,000  francs  per  month,  and  the  latter  16,000,000  annually  during  the 
war. 

The  conduct  of  Bonaparte  with  regard  to  Spain  deserves  a  few  more  words, 
as  it  exhibits  that  brutality — there  is 
no  other  word  for  it — with  which  he 
systematically  treated  the  weak.  The 
poor  King  was  mentally  deficient,  and 
ruled  by  the  Prince  of  the  Peace,  who 
carried  on  an  intrigue  with  the  Queen. 
Napoleon  sent  two  letters  to  Spain — 
one  to  be  delivered  into  the  hands  of 
the  King  himself,  the  other  to  the 
Spanish  Ministry — for  the  purpose  of 
disclosing  the  rumoured  shame  of  the 
King,  and  denouncing  the  relations  of 
the  favourite  and  the  Queen.  These 
two  abominable  letters  were  to  be  de- 
livered in  the  event  of  the  subsidy 
demanded  for  the  conduct  of  the  war 
being  refused.  Copies  of  both  were 
exhibited  to  the  Prince  of  the  Peace. 

The  note  to  the  Ministry  said,  "  that 
the  French,  who  had  placed  the  Bour- 
bons on  the  throne  of  Spain,  would 
be  very  well  able  to  find  their  way  to  Madrid,  to  drive  thence  .  .  .  this 
favourite,  who  had  reached  a  position  of  favour  unheard  of  in  modern  history, 
by  the  most  criminal  of  means." 

That  to  the  King  was  not  less  explicit.  Bonaparte  bade  him  "open  his 
eyes  on  the  gulf  that  gaped  below  his  throne.  All  Europe  was  afflicted  as  well 
as  disgusted  to  contemplate  the  sort  of  dethronement  to  which  the  Prince  of 
the  Peace  had  subjected  his  Majesty." 

"  He,"  continued  Napoleon,  "  is  the  veritable  King  of  Spain,  and  I  foresee 
with  pain  that  I  shall  be  forced  to  make  war  against  this  new  king.  May  your 
Majesty  remount  your  throne,  and  drive  away  a  man  who,  by  degrees,  has  laid 
hold  of  the  royal  power,  whilst  retaining  all  the  base  passions  of  his  character,, 
who  has  existed  only  by  his  vices,  and  has  been  dominated  solely  by  his 
avarice." 

These  letters  were  to  be  flourished  before  the  eyes  of  the  Prince  of  the 


KING   GEORGE    III.    AND   BONAPARTE. 
From  a  caricature  by  Gillray. 


272        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Peace  as  a  threat  that,  unless  the  requisite  supplies  were  granted,  they  should  be 
delivered  to  those  to  whom  addressed. 

The  same  absence  of  refinement  of  feeling  made  Napoleon  exult  over  the 
derangement  of  George  III. 

He  inserted  in  the  Moniteur  an  article  breathing  his  wrath  against 
England : — "  You  had  once,  in  Europe,  the  reputation  of  being  a  prudent 
nation,  but  you  have  degenerated.  All  you  say  inspires  nothing  but  contempt 
and  pity.  .  .  .  The  state  of  malady  in  which  is  your  King  has  communicated 
itself  to  the  entire  nation.  ...  As  for  your  King,  he  has  to  exercise  his  troops 
on  horseback,  so  as  to  arouse  some  of  that  military  ardour  and  that  experience 
which  he  has  acquired  on  so  many  battle-fields." 

"  Why  are  we  at  war  ?  "  was  his  answer  to  an  English  pamphlet  that  angered 
him.  "  Because  the  English  have  no  one  to  guide  their  politics  but  a  crazy 
King,  and  for  First  Minister  an  old  woman." 

Knowing  that  the  wealth  of  Great  Britain  reposed  on  her  commerce,  he 
formed  the  extravagant  design  of  killing  her  commerce  by  shutting  against  her 
all  the  ports  of  Europe.  To  carry  out  such  a  plan  demanded  a  despotic  control 
over  all  the  States  of  Europe,  which  he  did  not  possess  ;  but  it  was  to  realise 
this  method  of  revenge  that  he  precipitated  himself  into  the  Continental  wars 
that  led  to  his  ruin. 

As  he  traversed  the  north  of  France,  to  inspect  the  preparations  made  for 
the  projected  descent  upon  England,  he  passed,  at  Amiens,  under  a  triumphal 
arch,  on  which  was  inscribed — "The  Road  to  England."  What  Lanfrey  says 
thereon  is  too  striking  not  to  be  quoted : — 

"  This  was,  in  truth,  the  road  that  Bonaparte  had  just  entered  on  in  declaring 
war.  This  was  the  road  he  was  never  more  to  quit ;  the  road  that  he  would 
continue  to  follow  unconsciously,  when  he  entered  as  a  conqueror  into  Vienna, 
Berlin,  and  Moscow.  It  was  destined  to  be  much  longer  than  he  anticipated, 
and, it  would  be  made  illustrious  by  miracles  unnumbered.  But  at  the  end  of 
this  triumphal  avenue,  if  his  eye  could  have  pierced  the  darkness  of  the  future, 
he  would  have  beheld  with  horror,  not  the  triumph  he  anticipated,  but  the 
motionless  Bellerophon  awaiting  its  guest."* 

*  Hist,  de  Napoleon  I.  1868,  iii.  20. 


DOLLS    MADE   AT    NURNBERG. 


XXXIV 


THE   THRONE 


(December  2,  1804) 


T  N  the  alcoholic  condition  in  which  France  was  at  the  declaration  of  war  with 
-*-  England,  Napoleon  saw  that  the  time  was  come  when  he  could  take  the 
final  step,  and  mount  the  Imperial  Throne.  The  title  of  King  he  could  not 
assume;  it  was  associated  with  too  many  recollections.  But  that  of  Emperor 
was  justified  by  the  history  of  Rome,  where  the  Republic  had  led  to  the 
Empire,  by  much  the  same  series  of  stages  as  in  France.  The  title  of  Emperor 
was,  moreover,  one  gratifying  to  the  soldiery;  it  savoured  of  military  domination. 

This  time  Napoleon  made  none  of  those  feints  wherewith  he  had  disguised 
his  ambition  when  he  sought  the  Consulship  for  life.  Negotiations  on  the  pro- 
ject went  on  for  a  month  between  the  Government  and  the  Senate.  The  formal 
proposition  was  entrusted  to  the  Tribunate,  which  had  been  deprived  of  nearly 
all  its  independence,  but  was  the  only  body  that  possessed  a  shadow  of  popular 
representation.  On  the  25th  April,  1804,  the  motion  was  made  in  the  Tribunate 
that  the  head  of  the  State  should  be  entitled  Emperor. 

In  the  Council  of  State  the  motion  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  20  to  7,  and 
in  the  Tribunate  there  was  but  one  dissentient  voice. 

Bonaparte  might  now  have  exclaimed  with  Tiberius,  "  O  homines  ad  servi- 
tutem  parati."  From  all  sides  flowed  in  congratulatory  addresses,  petitions ; 
every  form  of  adulation  was  adopted. 

The  answer  of  the  First  Consul  was  delayed  a  month,  that  he  might  feel  the 
pulse  of  French  opinion.  Only  from  a  few  conscientious  Republicans  did  any 
T  273 


274        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

murmurs  rise.  The  people  generally  welcomed  the  prospect  of  a  stable  Govern- 
ment, even  though  it  signified  an  autocracy  more  crushing,  more  despotic,  than 
that  of  even  Louis  XIV. — than  that  of  any  king  or  emperor  then  in  Europe. 

The  answer  of  Napoleon  was  characteristic.  He  knew  the  people  well 
enough  to  be  aware  that,  so  long  as  they  were  given  the  chaff  of  words,  they 
would  allow  him  to  withdraw  the  grain  of  power  from  their  hands.  Words 
which  were  to  him  but  counters,  were  still  to  them  coin.  His  actions  were  in 
complete  contrast  with  his  speech  ;  and  he  employed  the  popular  phraseology 
as  the  means  of  veiling  his  acts,  whilst  killing  all  that  the  popular  phraseology 
meant.  When  he  expelled  the  deputies  of  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred,  he 
called  it  "  opening  the  era  of  Representative  Governments  "  ;  and  now,  when 
formulating  an  autocracy,  he  called  it  "  the  consolidation  of  all  the  advantages 
secured  by  the  Revolution,  and  purchased  by  the  death  of  so  many  millions  of 
brave  men,  who  died  for  the  people's  rights." 

An  appeal  was  made  to  the  people,  as  in  the  instance  of  his  acceptance  of 
the  Consulship  for  life.  Registers  were  opened  in  every  commune,  and  3,521,675 
votes  were  recorded  for  his  acceptance  of  the  purple,  against  only  2,569. 

"History,"  says  Alison,  "has  recorded  no  example  of  so  unanimous  an 
approbation  of  the  foundation  of  a  dynasty  ;  no  instance  of  a  nation  so  joyfully 
taking  refuge  in  the  stillness  of  despotism." 

Lavallette  most  truly  says,  "  It  was  the  secret  wish  of  all  those  whose  ambi- 
tion looked  for  favours  which  a  Republic  was  unable  to  bestow."* 

The  vast  mass  of  the  people  did  not  know  Napoleon  personally ;  they  were 
unaware  of  his  ambition,  that  was  insatiable ;  did  not  dream  that  he  had  not  at 
heart  the  desire  for  that  peace  about  which  he  professed  himself  so  solicitous. 
And  they  saw  in  a  dynasty  a  prospect  of  stability,  and  in  Napoleon,  a  child  of 
the  Revolution,  security  against  return  to  the  abuses  and  burdens  swept  away 
by  the  Revolution. 

The  Senate  had  declared  Napoleon  Emperor  of  the  French  on  May  i8th, 
subject  to  the  ratification  of  the  decree  by  the  people,  and  Bonaparte  had 
acknowledged  the  proffered  imperial  dignity  in  these  words : — 

"  I  accept  the  title  which  you  believe  to  be  useful  to  the  glory  of  the  nation. 
I  hope  that  France  will  never  repent  the  honours  she  has  accorded  to  my 
family.  In  any  case,  my  spirit  will  have  ceased  to  be  with  my  descendants  on 
the  day  in  which  they  lose  the  love  and  confidence  of  the  Great  Nation." 

The  name  of  Bonaparte,  used  hitherto  by  the  First  Consul,  was  now  laid 
aside  for  the  Christian  name,  after  the  wont  of  sovereigns.  He  proceeded  at 
once  to  flatter  and  secure  his  generals  by  creating  eighteen  of  them  Marshals  of 
the  Empire.  The  two  Consuls,  who  made  their  bow  and  withdrew,  were  consti- 
tuted Arch-Chancellor  and  Arch-Treasurer,  and  were  to  be  addressed  as  Serene 
Highnesses.  The  two  brothers  of  the  Emperor,  who  by  their  docility  had  not 
incurred  his  anger,  that  is  to  say  Joseph  and  Louis,  were  to  be  entitled  Grand 
Elector  and  Grand  Constable,  and  to  be  addressed  as  Imperial  Highnesses. 
His  sisters  were  to  be  Princesses,  but  his  mother  only  Madame  Mere.     The 

*  Memoirs,  ii-  3i« 


THE    THRONE  277 

Ministers  were  to  be  addressed  as  Excellencies.  Talleyrand  was  created  Grand 
Chamberlain.  There  were  ladies-in-waiting,  and  pages,  and  grooms  of  the 
chamber,  a  grand  marshal  of  the  palace,  a  grand  squire,  a  grand  master  of  the 
ceremonies : — 

"  For,"  says  Lanfrey,  with  cruel  wit,  "  never  is  there  felt  to  be  more  need  of 
prodigality  of  grandeur  in  title  than  when  there  is  pettiness  in  the  things  them- 
selves. But,  indeed,  all  these  men,  from  the  master  to  the  valet,  might  puff 
themselves  out  in  their  purple  and  their  liveries  :  all  savoured  of  parody,  bor- 
rowed plumes,  the  tinsel  and  spangles  of  a  theatrical  representation,  of  a  carnival 
scene.  It  was  not  possible  to  forget,  behind  these  travesties  of  courtiers,  the 
parvenu,  the  Jacobin,  the  Terrorist,  the  regicide,  who  had  won  all  they  now  had 
of  power,  influence,  and  riches,  by  fighting  against  such  titles,  dignities,  and 
privileges  as  they  now  laid  hold  of  with  so  much  effrontery.  It  was  not  possible 
to  forget  that  they  had  on  their  hands  the  stain  of  the  blood  of  those  who  had 
preceded  them  in  these  functions ;  that  they  had  enriched  themselves  on  their 
spoils ;  that  the  world  had  rung  with  their  declamations  against  royalty  and 
aristocracy.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  not  possible  to  forget  that  the  old 
noblesse,  bought  at  a  price,  and  now  the  humble  courtiers  of  their  former  pro- 
scribers,  despised,  from  the  depth  of  their  hearts,  a  usurpation  on  which  they 
seemed  to  exercise  their  revenge  by  imposing  on  it  all  that  was  ridiculous  in  a 
superannuated  etiquette.  Neither  length  of  time,  nor  tradition,  nor  popular 
superstition  lent  any  prestige  to  this  herd  of  renegades  from  all  regimes ;  and  it 
is  asking  too  much  of  history  to  expect  her  to  take  a  serious  tone  over  such 
contemptible  buffoonery." 

But  where  there  is  a  Court  there  must  be  state,  there  must  be  order ;  and  to 
ensure  both  there  must  be  functionaries.  It  was  the  misfortune,  not  the  fault  of 
Napoleon,  that  he  had  to  make  his  Court  up  of  patchwork.  When  once  launched 
on  a  course  of  ceremonial,  the  work  went  on  merrily. 

"Whoever,"  says  Madame  de  Stael,  "could  suggest  an  additional  piece  of 
etiquette  from  the  older  time,  propose  an  additional  reverence,  a  new  mode 
of  knocking  at  the  door  of  an  ante-chamber,  a  more  ceremonious  method 
of  presenting  a  petition,  or  folding  a  letter,  was  received  as  if  he  had  been  a 
benefactor  of  the  human  race.  The  code  of  Imperial  etiquette  is  the  most 
remarkable  authentic  record  of  human  baseness  that  has  been  treasured  up  by 
history." 

But  the  mere  accordance  of  the  title  of  Emperor  by  the  Senate  and  people 
of  France  did  not  suffice.  Napoleon  could  not  call  himself  "  Emperor  by  the 
grace  of  God  "  till  he  had  received  the  sacred  unction,  the  token  that  the  elec- 
tion by  the  people  was  ratified  by  Heaven.  The  representative  of  the  Bourbons 
might  entitle  himself  Louis  XVIII.,  but  he  could  exhibit  no  popular  or  religious 
sanction  to  sovereignty  over  the  French  people.  But  if  he,  the  chosen  of  the 
nation,  were  anointed  and  crowned,  and  that  by  the  Head  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  then  indeed  he  felt  that  he  would  have  a  right  which  could  not  be 
shaken,  though  it  might  be  disputed.  Accordingly,  he  entered  into  negotiations 
with  Pope  Pius  VII.,  to  induce  him  to  come  to  Paris,  there  to  consecrate  him. 

He  had  another  reason.  Europe  was  still  shuddering  at  the  assassination  of 
the  Due  d'Enghien.  If  he  could  persuade  the  Pope  to  come  to  his  coronation, 
that  would,  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  be  absolution  for  the  crime. 


278        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Napoleon  had  talked  the  matter  of  his  coronation  over  with  Lannes,  who 
said  to  him,  "  If  I  were  in  your  Majesty's  place,  I  would  leave  the  Vicar  of 
Christ  to  sit  quietly  in  his  chair,  and  would  do  whatever  I  wish  at  home,  by  my 
own  authority.  We  live  no  longer  in  times  when  the  holy  oil  is  an  article 
of  faith." 

''That,"  replied  Bonaparte,  "is  reasoning  like  a  soldier;  but  do  you  forget 
that  there  are  five-and-twenty  millions  to  whom  I  am  to  give  laws,  of  whom  at 
least  eighteen  millions  consist  of  fools,  pedants,  and  old  women,  who  would  not 
believe  me  to  be  a  legitimate  Sovereign,  if  the  unction  of  the  Lord  did  not  rest 
on  me  ?  In  a  case  so  peremptory,  we  must  not  neglect  to  dazzle  the  eyes  of 
the  many.     Splendour  always  prevents  reflection." 

"  I  feel  as  you  do,"  answered  the  General ;  "  but  what  if  you  should  meet  with 
a  refusal  ?  " 

"What  do  you  say — a  refusal?  The  Pope  dares  not  refuse.  The  good 
things  of  this  world  touch  him  as  nearly  as  do  those  of  heaven.  I  know 
Pius  VII.  I  took  his  measure  during  the  Concordat.  Great  promises  on 
certain  points,  and  great  honours  shown  him  on  the  road  and  at  Paris,  will  be 
sufficient  to  bring  hither  that  holy  man."* 

As  the  scruples  of  the  Pope  multiplied,  and  his  hesitation  became  greater,. 
De  Cacault,  the  French  Ambassador  at  Rome,  was  ordered  to  demand  his 
passports,  unless  the  difficulties  were  made  to  disappear  by  a  given  date.  This 
so  frightened  the  Holy  Father  and  his  advisers,  that  they  pocketed  their 
scruples,  and  abandoned  the  attempt  to  exact  definite  promises  to  adhere  to- 
certain  conditions,  to  obtain  which  the  scruples  had  been  produced  and  paraded. 

And  yet  there  was  a  certain  amount  of  sincerity  leavening  the  hypocrisy 
of  the  negotiation.  The  Pope  had  read  Bonaparte's  proclamation  in  Egypt,  in 
which  he  boasted  of  having  overthrown  both  the  Vicar  of  Christ  and  the  Cross 
of  the  Crucified.  He  knew  that  Napoleon  was  guilty  of  the  blood  of  the  last 
of  the  Condes.  He  held  in  reverence  the  rights  or  claims  of  legitimate 
dynasties.  But  he  possessed  largely  the  ecclesiastical  temperament  so  akin  to 
the  feminine — that  craves  after  the  exercise  of  petty  revenges,  and  is  greedy  of 
power.  The  Pope  had  long  harboured  acute  jealousy  of  the  Constitutionals 
who  had  been  made  bishops  after  the  signature  of  the  Concordat,  and  resent- 
ment against  the  assermentes  who  had  been  left  unmolested  to  minister  at  their 
parish  altars.  He  had  hoped  to  obtain  from  Napoleon,  as  the  price  of  his 
consent  to  break  the  phial  of  oil  on  his  head,  that  these  men  would  be  delivered 
over  to  them,  that  he  might  wreak  on  them  his  spite  for  having  dared  to  act 
independently.  Moreover,  he  hankered  after  the  so-called  Legations — Ancona^ 
Bologna,  &c. — that  had  been  detached  from  the  Papal  States,  and  he  even 
daringly  aspired  to  recover  Avignon  and  Carpentras. 

Although  Napoleon  was  profuse  in  expression  of  respect,  there  was  a 
suspicious  vagueness  about  his  promises  that  could  not  deceive  a  Court  in 
which  the  arts  of  dissimulation  and  evasion  were  carried  to  Oriental  perfection. 
But  if  the  promises  were  vague,  the  menaces  were  articulate  enough,  and  finally 
the  Pope  yielded,  thinking  it  his  best  policy  to  throw  himself  on  the  generosity 
of  his  terrible  master,  and  trusting  to  his  own  powers  of  persuasion. 

*  Secret  Memoirs,  p.  225. 


THE    THRONE  279 

When,  finally,  after  the  assurance  of  great  concessions  had  been  dangled 
before  his  eyes,  Pius  VII.  did  give  way,  then  he  announced  that  he  did  so  "for 
the  good  and  utility  of  religion " ;  with  certain  niggling  stipulations,  as  that 
Madame  Talleyrand  was  not  to  be  presented  to  him,  and  that  papal  etiquette 
should  be  strictly  observed  towards  him  in  France. 

A  serious  hitch  occurred  when  the  oath  of  the  Emperor  came  under  con- 
sideration. Napoleon  was  to  promise  "to  respect,  and  cause  to  be  respected, 
the  laws  of  the  Concordat,  and  maintain  liberty  of  worship."  This  was  objected 
to  on  the  part  of  the  Pope  as  inconsistent  with  the  Roman  faith,  which  is 
essentially  and  radically  intolerant.  Talleyrand  got  over  this  difficulty  by 
explaining  that  civil  toleration  only  was  meant.  Then  the  Pope  insisted  on  the 
religious  consecration  of  Napoleon's  union  with  Josephine.  To  this  Bonaparte 
consented,  on  condition  that  the  ceremony  was  performed  privately.  When 
finally  the  poor  Pope  approached  Paris,  the  Emperor  purposely  met  him,  as  by 
chance,  in  hunting  costume,  at  Fontainebleau,  surrounded  by  his  Mamelukes 
and  hounds.  The  two  potentates  embraced,  and  then  entered  a  carriage 
simultaneously  by  opposite  doors ;  Napoleon  seated  himself  on  the  right  side, 
as  that  of  honour.  This  was  but  the  first  of  a  series  of  annoyances  to  which 
the  Pope  had  to  submit  during  his  stay  in  Paris.  In  his  heart,  Bonaparte 
despised  the  man,  who,  to  gratify  his  ecclesiastical  rancour,  and  satisfy  his  greed 
of  power,  threw  over  the  Bourbons. 

Great  preparations  were  made  for  the  ceremony,  which  was  to  take  place  in 
Notre-Dame.  A  Master  of  the  Ceremonies  was  imported  from  Turin,  and 
Madame  Campan  was  taken  from  her  school  to  furbish  up  her  memory,  and 
detail  all  the  little  trifles  of  regal  etiquette  she  could  recollect  as  flourishing 
under  the  old  regime.  Isabey,  the  artist,  was  ordered  to  design  the  dresses,  and 
make  seven  paintings  representing  the  principal  ceremonies  of  the  coronation, 
by  which  all  who  took  part  therein  might  learn  where  to  stand,  and  how  to 
conduct  themselves.  How  to  do  this  when  about  a  hundred  were  to  be  engaged 
in  the  function,  and  in  the  space  of  eight  days  allowed  him,  was  impossible.  But 
Napoleon  was  not  the  man  to  accept  an  excuse. 

"  Isabey  was  saved  by  his  inspiration  full  of  resourse.  He  ran  to  a  toy-shop, 
ordered  a  host  of  dolls  about  two  inches  high  ;  he  designed  their  dresses,  had 
them  rigged  up  into  princes  and  princesses,  into  marshals,  ministers,  grand 
officials,  pages,  and  heralds  of  arms,  and  all  was  done  in  two  days.  Fontaine, 
the  architect,  forewarned,  had  executed  a  plan  in  relief  of  Notre-Dame  on  a 
corresponding  scale. 

"  Thirty-six  hours  after  his  visit  to  Saint  Cloud,  Isabey  arrived  at  Fontaine- 
bleau, where  was  the  Emperor,  who,  on  seeing  him,  exclaimed,  '  You  have 
brought  the  pictures,  eh  ? '  '  Better  than  that,  sire,'  answered  Isabey.  Then  he 
revealed  his  plan,  constructed  his  theatre,  and  disposed  his  personages  on  the 
points  numbered  beforehand,  like  the  squares  of  a  chessboard. 

"  Napoleon  was  so  delighted  with  the  invention  of  the  artist,  that  he 
summoned  Josephine,  the  ladies  of  the  palace,  and  all  the  officers  w^ho  were  to  be 
in  attendance.  Then  all  proceeded  to  a  rehearsal  of  the  consecration,  and  each 
performer  learned  the  place  he  was  to  occupy,  and  the  part  he  was  to  play."* 

*  y.  B,  Isabey^  sa  vie  et  ses  ceuvres^  par  E.  Taigny. 


28o        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Only  one  of  the  ceremonies,  more  complicated  than  the  rest,  required  actual 
personal  rehearsal.  This  took  place  in  the  gallery  of  Diana  at  the  Tuileries,  by 
means  of  a  plan  traced  in  white  chalk  on  the  floor.  Isabey  had  used  his  utmost 
taste  in  dressing  the  dolls,  and  by  his  address  and  talent  saved  the  whole  thing 
from  being  ridiculous. 

A  curious  letter  from  Napoleon  to  Josephine  has  been  preserved,  written 
directly  he  saw  that  the  title  of  Emperor  was  going  to  be  given  him,  in  which 
he  instructs  her  that  she  is  to  comport  herself  with  dignity. 

"  I  have  to  acquaint  you,  madam  and  dear  wife,  that  France  is  on  the  eve  of 
acquitting  herself  of  her  debt  of  gratitude  to  me.  In  a  few  days,  your  husband 
will  be  proclaimed  Emperor  of  the  French.  Begin  then,  from  to-day,  to  assume 
the  grandeur  of  that  illustrious  rank  which  I  intend  that  you  shall  share  with 
me.  If  the  throne,  on  which  you  will  soon  be  seated,  is  become,  by  my 
victories,  the  first  throne  in  the  world,  let  me  have  the  sweet  satisfaction  of 
hearing  that  you  are  deserving  of  holding  a  rank  with  the  first  princesses  in  the 
universe.  Prepare  the  people  of  your  household  for  the  new  order  of  things. 
The  Empress  of  the  French  ought  no  longer  to  be  Madame  Bonaparte,  much 
less  the  wife  of  the  First  Consul." 

Poor,  gentle  Josephine !  There  was  no  necessity  for  this  underbred  Corsican 
upstart  to  give  her  directions  how  she  should  conduct  herself  Her  innate  grace 
and  natural  refinement,  together  with  the  polish  of  her  manner,  fitted  her  to 
shine  in  any  Court.  At  the  time  of  his  becoming  Emperor,  she  was  unhappy. 
She  could  not  shake  off  the  horror  of  mind  caused  by  the  murder  of  the  Due 
d'Enghien,  and  this  produced  a  restraint  in  her  manner  towards  her  husband 
which  he  did  not  fail  to  perceive,  but  which  he  could  only  account  for  as  awe, 
inspired  by  himself  in  his  new  dignity,  and  as  in  accord  with  the  haut  ton  that  it 
became  Imperial  Majesties  to  affect. 

The  announcement  of  the  approaching  ceremony  produced  a  commotion  in 
the  Imperial  Court.  The  Bonapartes  had  hoped  at  first  that  Josephine  would 
take  no  other  part  than  that  of  spectator ;  but  when  they  learned  that  she  also 
was  to  be  crowned,  and  above  all,  that  the  sisters  of  Napoleon  were  destined  to 
act  as  train-bearers,  then  the  effervescence  in  the  hearts  of  Mme.  Joseph,  Mme. 
Murat,  Mme.  Borghese,  and  Mme.  Bacciochi,  caused  an  explosion  so  violent  as 
to  frighten  Napoleon.  Joseph,  in  particular,  was  vastly  indignant ;  he  protested 
his  rights,  his  dignity,  as  though  he  were  a  Prince  descended  from  a  long  line  of 
royal  ancestors.  Things  went  so  far  that,  in  a  stormy  interview.  Napoleon  asked 
him  whether  he  purposed  declaring  war  on  him  ;  and  when  Louis  also  strutted  and 
protested,  Napoleon  took  him  by  the  shoulders,  and  turned  him  out  of  the 
room. 

However,  Talleyrand  was  called  in,  and  succeeded  in  effecting  an  arrange- 
ment, whereby  the  new  Imperial  Highnesses  agreed  to  touch  the  mantle  of 
their  sister-in-law,  and  make-believe  they  were  holding  the  train,  in  return  for 
which  their  own  mantles  were  to  be  sustained  by  ladies  of  honour. 

At  last  the  grand  day  arrived,  the  2nd  December,  1804 ;  and  in  the  morning 
the  salons  of  the  Tuileries  were  crowded  with  those  who  were  to  attend  in  the 


THE   THRONE 


281 


pageant,  dressed  out,  like  actors,  in  a  strange  jumble  of  costumes,  from  the 
period  of  Louis  XIII.  to  that  of  Louis  XVI.  Napoleon  flourished  about  in  red 
velvet,  and  striding  into  the  midst  of  a  knot  of  ladies  gorgeously  adorned, 
with  all  the  delight  of  a  child  over  a  masquerade,  exclaimed,  "  Ladies,  you  owe 
it  to  me  that  you  are  all  so  smart." 

Outside,  the  weather  was  dry  and  cold ;  and  the  Pope  was  kept  shivering 
for  an  hour  in  Notre-Dame,  whilst  Napoleon  was  enjoying  the  spectacle,  at  the 
Tuileries,  of  the  actors   in  the  performance  belonging  to   his  suite  parade  in 


ARRIVAL   AT    NOTRE-DAME. 
From  a  sepia  drawing  by  Isabey. 


their  new  costumes.  The  procession  of  carriages  started  ;  and  when  Napoleon 
and  Josephine  entered  their  state-coach,  by  mistake  they  took  the  place  with 
their  backs  to  the  horses,  and  did  not  find  out  their  error  till  the  carriage  began 
to  roll  forward.  As  the  grand  procession  moved  through  the  crowded  streets, 
the  people  remained  cold  and  impassive.  One  voice  only  was  raised,  to  shout 
"Point  d'Empereur!"  Bonaparte,  however,  was  satisfied  at  the  resignation  of 
the  populace,  and  he  said  in  Duroc's  ear,  "  The  game  is  won."  He  had  not 
reckoned  on  enthusiasm,  and  he  did  without  it. 

On  entering  the  church,  the  unfortunate  mantle  of  Josephine  almost  caused 
a  fresh  scandal.  Her  sisters-in-law  held  the  train  with  such  indifference,  that 
the  velvet,  catching  in  a  pile  carpet,  arrested  her  steps  as  though  she  were 


282        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

gripped  by  a  hand  and  held  back.  Napoleon  had  to  turn  on  them,  and  rate 
them  well,  before  they  consented  to  raise  it  sufficiently  to  enable  the  Empress 
to  proceed. 

The  account  of  the  Coronation  cannot  be  better  given  than  from  the  pen  of 
that  most  delightful  of  all  writers  of  memoirs,  Madame  Junot. 

"The  day  appointed  for  the  ceremony  was  the  2nd  December,  1804. 

"Who  that  saw  Notre-Dame  on  that  memorable  day  can  ever  forget  it? 
I  have  witnessed  in  that  venerable  pile  the  celebration  of  sumptuous  and  solemn 
festivals ;  but  never  did  I  see  anything  at  all  approximating  in  splendour  to 
the  coup  d'ceil  exhibited  at  Napoleon's  coronation.  The  vaulted  roof  re-echoed 
the  sacred  chanting  of  the  priests,  who  invoked  the  blessing  of  the  Almighty 
on  the  ceremony  about  to  be  celebrated,  while  they  awaited  the  arrival  of  the 
Vicar  of  Christ,  whose  throne  was  prepared  near  the  altar.  Along  the  walls 
hung  with  ancient  tapestry  were  ranged,  according  to  their  ranks,  the  different 
bodies  of  the  State,  the  deputies  from  every  city  ;  in  short,  the  representatives 
of  all  France,  assembled  to  implore  the  benediction  of  Heaven  on  the 
Sovereign  of  the  people's  choice.  The  waving  plumes  which  adorned  the  hats 
of  the  Senators,  the  Councillors  of  State,  the  Tribunes  ;  the  splendid  uniforms 
of  the  military ;  the  clergy,  in  all  their  ecclesiastical  pomp  ;  and  the  multitude  of 
young  and  beautiful  women,  glittering  in  jewels,  and  arrayed  in  that  style 
of  grace  and  elegance  which  is  to  be  seen  only  in  Paris — altogether  presented 
a  picture  which  has  perhaps  rarely  been  equalled,  and  certainly  never  excelled. 

"  The  Pope  arrived  first ;  and  at  the  moment  of  his  entering  the  cathedral, 
the  anthem  Tu  es  Petrus  was  commenced.  His  holiness  advanced  from  the 
door  with  an  air  at  once  majestic  and  humble.  Ere  long  the  firing  of  cannon 
announced  the  departure  of  the  procession  from  the  Tuileries.  From  an  early 
hour  in  the  morning  the  weather  had  been  exceedingly  unfavourable.  It  was 
cold  and  rainy,  and  appearances  seemed  to  indicate  that  the  procession  would 
be  anything  but  agreeable  to  those  who  joined  in  it.  But,  as  if  by  the  special 
favour  of  Providence,  of  which  so  many  instances  are  observable  in  the  career 
of  Napoleon,  the  clouds  suddenly  dispersed,  the  sky  brightened  up,  and  the 
multitudes  who  lined  the  streets  from  the  Tuileries  to  the  cathedral  enjoyed 
the  sight  of  the  procession,  without  being,  as  they  anticipated,  drenched  by  a 
December  rain.  Napoleon,  as  he  passed  along,  was  greeted  by  heartfelt  ex- 
pressions of  enthusiastic  love  and  attachment. 

"  On  his  arrival  at  Notre-Dame,  Napoleon  ascended  the  throne  which  was 
erected  in  front  of  the  grand  altar.  Josephine  took  her  place  beside  him, 
surrounded  by  the  assembled  sovereigns  of  Europe.  Napoleon  appeared 
singularly  calm.  I  watched  him  narrowly,  with  the  view  of  discovering 
whether  his  heart  beat  more  highly  beneath  the  imperial  trappings  than  under 
the  uniform  of  the  Guards  ;  but  I  could  observe  no  difference ;  and  yet  I  was 
at  the  distance  of  only  ten  paces  from  him.  The  length  of  the  ceremony, 
however,  seemed  to  weary  him,  and  I  saw  him  several  times  check  a  yawn. 
Nevertheless,  he  did  everything  he  was  required  to  do,  and  did  it  with  propriety. 
When  the  Pope  anointed  him  with  the  triple  unction  on  the  head  and  both 
hands,  I  fancied,  from  the  direction  of  his  eyes,  that  he  was  thinking  of  wiping 
off  the  oil  rather  than  of  anything  else ;  and  I  was  so  perfectly  acquainted  with 
the  workings  of  his  countenance,  that  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  was 
really  the  thought  that  crossed  his  mind  at  the  moment.  During  the  ceremony 
of  the  anointing  the  Holy  Father  delivered  the  impressive  prayer,  which 
concluded  with  these  words,  '  Diffuse,  O  Lord,  by  my  hands,  the  treasures  of 
Thy  grace  and  benediction  on  Thy  servant,  Napoleon,  whom,  in  spite  of  our 


s 
2  ' 


THE    THRONE 


285 


unworthiness,  we  this  day  anoint  Emperor  in  Thy  name.'  Napoleon  listened 
to  the  prayer  with  an  air  of  pious  devotion;  but  just  as  the  Pope  was  about  to- 
take  the  crown,  called  the  crown  of  Charlemagne,  from  the  altar,  Napoleon  seized 
it,  and  placed  it  on  his  own  head.  At  that  moment  he  was  really  handsome, 
and  his  countenance  was  lighted  up  with  an  expression  of  which  no  words  can 
convey  an  idea.  He  had  removed  the  wreath  of  laurel  which  he  wore  on 
entering  the  church,  and  which  encircles  his  brow  in  the  fine  picture  of  Gerard. 
The  crown  was,  perhaps,  in  itself,  less  becoming  to  him  ;  but  the  expression 
excited  by  the  act  of  putting  it  on  rendered  him  perfectly  handsome.* 

"When  the  moment  arrived  for  Josephine  to  take  an  active  part  in  the 
grand  drama,  she  descended  from 
the  throne,  and  advanced  towards 
the  altar,  where  the  Emperor 
awaited  her,  followed  by  her  retinue 
of  court  ladies,  and  having  her  train 
borne  by  the  Princesses  Caroline, 
Julie,  Elise,  and  Louis.  One  of 
the  chief  beauties  of  the  Empress 
Josephine  was  not  merely  her  fine 
figure,  but  the  elegant  turn  of  her 
neck,  and  the  way  in  which  she 
carried  her  head.  Indeed,  her  de- 
portment altogether  was  conspicu- 
ous for  dignity  and  grace.  I  have 
had  the  honour  of  being  presented 
to  many  real  princesses,  to  use  the 
phrase  of  the  Faubourg  S.  Germain, 
but  I  never  saw  one  who,  to  my 
eyes,  presented  so  perfect  a  personi- 
fication of  elegance  and  majesty. 
In  Napoleon's  countenance  I  could 
read  the  conviction  of  all  I  have 
just  said.  He  looked  with  an  air 
of  complacency  at  the  Empress  as 
she  advanced  towards  him ;  and 
when  she  knelt  down — when  the  tears,  which  she  could  not  suppress,  fell  upon 
her  clasped  hands,  as  they  were  raised  to  heaven,  or,  rather,  to  Napoleon — 
both  then  appeared  to  enjoy  one  of  those  fleeting  moments  of  pure  felicity 
which  are  unique  in  a  lifetime,  and  serve  to  fill  up  a  lustrum  of  years.  The 
Emperor  performed,  with  a  peculiar  grace,  every  action  required  of  him  during 
the  ceremony ;  but  his  manner  of  crowning  Josephine  was  most  remarkable. 
After  receiving  the  small  crown  surmounted  by  the  cross,  he  had  first  to  place 
it  on  his  own  head,  and  then  to  transfer  it  to  that  of  the  Empress.  When  the 
moment  arrived  for  placing  the  crown  on  the  head  of  the  woman  whom  popular 
superstition  regarded  as  his  good  genius,  his  manner  was  almost  playful.  He^ 
took  great  pains  to  arrange  this  little  crown,  which  was  placed  over  Josephine's 
tiara  of  diamonds.     He  put  it  on,  then  took  it  off,  and  finally  put  it  on  again, 


PENCIL   SKETCH    OF  JOSEPHINE. 
By  David. 


*  This  act  of  self-coronation  dreadfully  disconcerted  the  Pope.  He  complained  of  it  as  an. 
infringement  of  the  prescribed  ceremonial,  and  a  violation  of  his  rights.  But  Napoleon  was  right. 
He  was  ready  to  receive  unction  for  the  office,  a  token  of  sacramental  grace  accorded  to  perform  its 
duties,  but  not  to  receive  the  crown  from  the  Pope,  who  had  no  right  to  confer  it.  That  crown  was-. 
conferred  on  him  by  the  people  of  France,  and  he,  as  their  representative,  crowned  himself.  The  Pope 
could  in  no  way  be  regarded  as  the  representative  of  the  French  people. 


286 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


as  if  to  promise  her  she  should  wear  it  lightly  and  gracefully.  My  position 
enabled  me,  fortunately,  to  see  and  observe  every  minute  action  and  gesture 
of  the  principal  actors  in  this  magical  scene. 

"  This  part  of  the  ceremony  ended,  the  Emperor  descended  from  the  altar 
to  return  to  his  throne,  while  the  magnificent  Vivat  was  performed  by  the  full 
chorus.  At  this  moment  the  Emperor,  whose  eagle  eye  had  hitherto  glanced 
rapidly  from  one  object  to  another,  recognised  me  in  the  little  corner  which  I 
occupied.      He  fixed  his  eye  upon  me,  and  I  cannot  attempt  to  describe  the 

thoughts  which  this  circum- 
stance conjured  up  in  my 
mind.  A  naval  officer  once 
told  me  that  during  a  ship- 
wreck, when  he  had  given 
himself  up  for  lost,  the  whole 
picture  of  his  past  life  seemed 
to  unfold  itself  before  him  in 
the  space  of  a  minute.  May 
it  not  be  presumed  that 
Napoleon,  when  he  looked 
at  me,  was  assailed  by  a  host 
of  past  recollections — that  he 
thought  of  the  Rue  des 
Filles  de  S.  Thomas,  of  the 
hospitality  he  had  shared  in 
my  father's  house,  and  the 
ride  in  the  carriage  with  my 
mother,  when,  returning  from 
S.  Cyr,  he  exclaimed,  '  Oh  ! 
si  fetais  maitre' 

"When  I  saw'  the  Em- 
peror a  few  days  afterwards 
he  said,  '  Why  did  you  wear 
a  black  velvet  dress  at  the 
coronation?  Was  it  a  sign 
of  mourning?'  'Oh,  sire!'  I 
exclaimed,  and  the  tears 
started  to  my  eyes.  Napoleon 
looked  at  me,  as  if  he  would 
scan  my  inmost  thoughts. 
'But  tell  me,  why  did  you 
make  choice  of  that  sombre, 
almost  sinister  colour  ? '  *  Your  Majesty  did  not  observe  that  the  front  of  my 
dress  was  richly  embroidered  with  gold,  and  that  I  wore  my  diamonds.  I  did 
not  conceive  that  there  was  anything  unsuitable  in  my  dress,  not  being  one  of 
the  ladies  whose  situations  required  them  to  appear  in  full  court  costume.' 
*  Is  that  remark  intended  to  convey  an  indirect  reproach  ?  Are  you,  like  certain 
other  ladies,  angry  because  you  have  not  been  appointed  dames  du  palais  ?  I 
do  not  like  sulkiness  and  ill-humour.' " 


THE   CORONATION. 
From  an  engraving  of  the  period. 


An  incident  or  two  relative  to  the  coronation  may  be  added.  As  Napoleon, 
wearing  the  imperial  crown,  neared  his  brothers,  he  said  to  Joseph,  "  What 
would  father  have  said,  had  he  seen  this  day  ?  " 

Quarrels  about  right  to  the  succession  to  the  Crown  broke  out  in  the  family 


NAPOLEON    IN    COROXATIOX    ROBES. 
From  the  portrait  by  Lefevre. 


UNIVERSITY 


OF 


THE   THRONE 


289 


One  day,  when  Bonaparte  had  his  little  nephew  Napoleon,  the  son  of  Louis,  on 
his  knees,  he  said,  "  Do  you  know,  little  fellow,  that  you  may  be  a  king  some 
day?"  "And  Achille?"  hastily  inquired  Murat,  anxious  about  his  own  son, 
also  a  nephew.  "  Oh,  Achille,"  answered  Bonaparte,  "  he  will  be  a  great 
soldier."  Then  to  the  little  Napoleon,  "  Mind,  my  poor  child,  if  you  value  your 
life,  do  not  accept  invitations  to  dinner  with  your  cousins^* 

Presently  the  Marshals  began  to  quarrel  as  to  precedence,  and  to  argue  their 
claims  before  the  Emperor. 


THE   CORONATION   PROCESSION. 
Drawn  by  Nodet. 


"  I  think,"  said  Madame  de  Remusat,  "  you  must  have  stamped  your  foot  on 
France,  and  said,  '  Let  all  the  vanities  arise  out  of  the  soil.'  '  That  is  true,' 
answered  the  Emperor;  'but  it  is  fortunate  that  the  French  are  to  be  ruled 
through  their  vanity.' "f 

The  noble  picture  of  David,  representing  the  coronation  of  Josephine  by 
Napoleon,  is  not  only  a  grand  composition,  but  it  is  a  treasury  of  portraiture 
of  the  important  actors  in  that  scene.  It  is  not  altogether  accurate,  as  Madame 
Mere  is  represented  as  looking  on.  This  was  done  by  express  order  of 
Bonaparte.  In  reality,  his  mother  was,  at  the  time,  in  Italy  with  Lucien. 
She  strongly  disapproved  of  the  assumption  of  royalty. 


Madame  de  Remusat,  Mem.  i.  220. 


t  Ibid. ,  72. 


zgo 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


^  After  the  coronation,  Pius  VII.  lingered  on  for  sorrie  months,  waiting 
and  hoping  to  receive  what  he  had  calculated  on  gaining  as  the  price  of 
submission.  At  last  he  had  to  leave,  eating  out  his  heart  with  bitterness  of 
disappointment,  carrying  away  a  Sevres  dinner  service,  and  some  pieces 
of  Gobelins  tapestry,  but  without  having  put  his  foot  on  the  Constitutionals, 
or  having  recovered  an  acre  of  the  Legations. 

But  he  had  done  the  right 
thing,  though  it  was  done 
from  the  meanest  of  motives. 
If  the  voice  of  the  nation  can 
decide — and  what  else  is  to 
decide? — on  who  is  to  be 
its  ruler,  then  the  Bourbon 
dynasty  was  swept  away, 
and  the  Corsican  adventurer 
was  chosen  by  the  people 
unanimously  in  its  place. 
"  The  powers  that  be  are 
ordained  of  God,"  said  the 
apostle.  Acting  upon  this 
maxim,  when  the  Merovin- 
gian sluggard  kings  had  lost 
all  political  significance, 
Zachary,  the  Pope,  had  made 
no  scruple  to  crown  Pepin, 
the  Palace  Mayor,  who  held 
the  real  power.  And  when 
the  Carolingians  became  de- 
generate, Hughues-Capet  was 
accepted  by  the  nation  in 
place  of  Charles  of  Lorraine, 
the  representative  of  the 
Carolingians,  and  was  con- 
secrated by  Adalbero,  Arch- 
bishop of  Rheims. 
There  were  consequently  both  Scriptural  authority  and  ecclesiastical 
precedent  to  justity  the  course  taken  by  the  Pope,  as  well  as  common  sense, 
which,. probably,  was  the  element  in  the  question  the  least  Considered. 

Fouche    unquestionably    spoke    what    all    France    felt,   when    he   said    to 
Boiirrienne  in  1805:— 

'  "  I  have  no  preference  for  one  form  of  government  over  another.  Forms 
signify  nothing.  The  first  object  of  the  Revolution  was  not  the  pverthrow 
of  the  Bourbons,  but  the  reform  of  abuses  and  the  destruction  of  privileges. 
However,  when  it  was  discovered  that  Louis  XVI.  had  neither  firmness  to 
refuse  what  he  did  not  wish  to  grant,  nor  good  faith  to  grant  what  his  weakness 


PROFILE  OF   NAPOLEON.- 
Drawn  during  Mass  in  the  Tuileries. 


THE   THRONE  293 

had  led  him  to  promise,  it  was  evident  that  the  Bourbons  could  no  longer  reign 
over  France.  You  know  everything  that  passed  up  to  the  i8th  Brumaire, 
and  after.  We  all  perceived  that  a  Republic  could  not  exist  in  France  ;  the  ^ 
question,  therefore,  was  to  ensure  the  perpetual  removal  of  the  Bourbons  ;  and 
I  believe  the  only  means  for  so  doing  was  to  transfer  the  inheritance  of  their 
throne  to  another  family."  And  he  might  have  added,  as  had  been  done  in  the 
case  of  the  Merovingians  and  of  the  Carolingians.  "  The  history  of  France 
justified  such  a  change." 


XXXV 

AUSTERLITZ 

(1805) 

T70R  a  considerable  time  the  project  of  an  invasion  of  England  had  occupied 
-■-  Napoleon's  mind  ;  and  not  only  had  he  thought  it  out  in  all  its  details, 
but  he  had  set  all  departments  in  operation  for  the  preparation  requisite. 
Large  numbers  of  troops  had  been  concentrated  at  Boulogne,  and  all  the 
docks  were  engaged,  both  in  France  and  in  Holland,  in  the  preparation  of 
flat-bottomed  boats,  suitable — or  supposed  to  be  suitable — for  the  transport 
of  troops,  cannon,  and  horses  to  the  English  coast.  Further,  the  fleet  in 
Brest  under  Admiral  Gantheaume,  and  that  at  Toulon  under  Villeneuve, 
were  instructed  to  combine,  after  .  certain  evolutions  intended  to  distract 
English  counsels  and  dissipate  the  English  fleet ;  and  to  cover  the  transport 
of  the  French  army  from  Boulogne  to  the  Kentish  shore.  Not  only  were 
vessels  of  various  kinds  being  constructed  in  the  dockyards  on  the  coast, 
but  also  up  the  rivers ;  stores  of  every  description  were  collected  at  Boulogne, 
and  spies  had  been  employed  in  England  and  Ireland  to  examine  and  report 
on  the  defences  of  Great  Britain,  and  to  recommend  the  places  most  suitable 
for  effecting  a  landing. 

But  there  were  difficulties  in  the  way  which  embarrassed  Napoleon. 

His  flat-bottomed  transports  could  be  used  only  when  the  sea  was  calm  : 
even  a  swell  was  sufficient  to  capsize  them  when  laden.  And  in  the  event 
of  a  suitable  calm  season  being  obtained,  the  currents  in  the  Channel  were  so 
strong,  that  they  would  inevitably  sweep  his  flotilla  along  with  them.  To 
counteract  the  currents,  which  had  troubled  Caesar  in  his  descent  on  the  coast, 
a  capful  of  wind  was  requisite,  so  that  sails  could  be  spread. 

But  there  was  another  difficulty  in  the  way ;  Gantheaume  was  blockaded 
in  Brest,  and  although  Villeneuve  had  succeeded  in  escaping  the  English 
cruisers,  and  had  thrust  through  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  he  was  unable  to 
relieve  the  fleet  cooped  up  in  Brest,  nor  was  he  able  to  make  his  way  into  the 
Channel.  Without  the  protection  of  his  fleet  the  passage  could  not  be 
adventured. 

Shortly  after  the  coronation  of  Napoleon,  the  Legion  of  Honour  was 
perfected  as  an  institution.  It  was  divided  into  cohorts,  to  each  of  which 
officers  were  appointed,  and  it  was  transformed  into  a  knightly  order.  It  was 
decided  that  the  legionaries  should  carry  at  the  buttonhole  a  moire  ribbon, 

294 


AUSTERLITZ 


295 


of  the  colour  of  fire,  to  which  should  be  attached  a  double  star  in  silver  and 
enamel,  representing  the  effigy  of  the  Emperor,  with  the  superscription, 
Honneur  et  Patrie.  The  double  star  of  commandants  and  the  officers  of 
cohorts  was  to  be  in  gold.  The  grand  officers  of  the  Legion  were  to  carry 
the  badge  attached  to  a  cordon  passing  from  right  to  left,  together  with  the 
star  at  the  buttonhole. 

A  grand  distribution  of  the  decoration  was  made  by  the  Emperor,  at  the 
Hotel  des  Invalides.  Moreover,  the  flags  of  the  regiments,  inscribed  with  their 
victories,  and  surmounted  by  eagles,  were  also  distributed   by  him,  and  this 


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THE   EMPEROR. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


forms  the  subject  of  one  of  David's  pictures.  In  the  original  painting,  a  figure 
of  Fame  was  introduced  in  the  sky,  scattering  laurels ;  but  to  this  allegorical 
treatment  Napoleon,  with  good  judgment,  objected,  and  it  was  omitted  from 
the  picture  when  completed.  As  a  work  of  art,  it  is  certainly  inferior  to 
David's  picture  of  the  Coronation.  The  attitude  of  the  Marshals  flourishing 
their  batons  is  theatrical  and  grotesque. 

Bonaparte  then  went  to  the  camp  at  Boulogne,  where  he  also  distributed 
honours,  on  the  15th  August,  his  official  birthday. 

Madame  Junot,  who  was  present,  gives  a  graphic  description  of  the  scene  : — 

"  Near  the  Tour  d'Ordre,  on  the  most  elevated  point  of  the  hill,  a  throne 
was  constructed,  around  which  waved  two  hundred  banners  that  had  been 
taken  from  the  enemies  of  France.     On  the  steps  of  the  throne  were  ranged 


296        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

the  twenty-four  Grand  Officers  of  the  Empire,  whom  Napoleon  had  selected 
from  amongst  the  most  distinguished  military  commanders.  On  the  throne 
was  placed  the  ancient  chair  known  by  the  name  of  the  Fauteuil  de  Dagobert, 
and  near  the  Emperor  was  the  helmet  of  Bayard,  containing  the  crosses  and 
ribbons  which  were  to  be  distributed.  The  shield  of  Francis  I.  was  also 
brought  into  requisition.  In  a  valley  cut  by  the  hands  of  Nature  there  were 
stationed  sixty  thousand  men,  in  several  ranks,  and  in  echelon.  The  valley 
was  so  formed  that  they  seemed  to  be  ranged  in  an  amphitheatre,  and  could 
be  seen  from  the  sea,  the  waves  of  which  broke  against  the  Tour  d'Ordre,  or 
rather  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  which  it  was  erected.  In  front  of  the  men  was 
the  throne,  which  was  reached  by  a  few  steps.      There  was  seated,  in  all  the 


THE    DISTRIBUTION    OF    THE   EAGLES. 
From  a  drawing  by  David. 

splendour  of  his  glory,  the  man  whose  genius  then  ruled  Europe  and  the  world. 
Over  his  head  a  multitude  of  banners,  tattered  by  shot  and  stained  with  blood 
formed  an  appropriate  canopy.  Though  the  day  was  fair,  the  wind  blew  with 
extreme  violence,  so  that  the  trophies  of  victory  waved  in  full  view  of  several 
English  vessels  then  cruising  in  the  straits. 

"  The  ceremony  of  the  distribution  was  exceedingly  long.  Each  Legionist 
ascended  the  twelve  steps  leading  to  the  throne,  and  after  receiving  the  cross  and 
ribbon  from  the  Emperor's  hand,  made  his  bow,  and  returned  to  his  place.  When 
Napoleon  presented  the  cross  to  one  of  his  old  comrades,  who  had  fought  with 
him  in  Italy  or  Egypt,  there  seemed  to  be  a  glow  of  feeling  which  carried 
him  back  to  his  early  and  most  brilliant  glory.  It  was  five  o'clock,  and  for  a 
considerable  time  I  had  observed  the  Emperor  turning  frequently  and  anxiously 
to  M.  Decres,  the  Minister  of  the  Marine,  to  whom  he  repeatedly  said  some- 
thing in  a  whisper.  He  then  took  a  glass  and  looked  towards  the  sea,  as  if 
eager  to  discover  a  distant  sail.      At  length  his  impatience  seemed  to  increase. 


AUSTERLITZ  ^  297 

Berthler,  too,  who  stood  biting  his  nails,  in  spite  of  his  dignity  of  Marshal,  now 
and  then  looked  through  the  glass  ;  and  Junot  appeared  to  be  in  the  secret,  for 
they  all  talked  together  aside.  It  was  evident  that  something  was  expected. 
At  length  the  Minister  of  the  Marine  received  a  message,  which  he  immediately 
communicated  to  the  Emperor  ;  and .  the  latter  snatched  the  glass  from  the 
hand  of  M.  Decres  with  such  violence,  that  it  fell  and  rolled  down  the  steps  of 
the  throne.  All  eyes  were  now  directed  to  the  point  which  I  had  observed  the 
Emperor  watching,  and  we  soon  discerned  a  flotilla,  consisting  of  between  a 
thousand  and  twelve  hundred  boats,  advancing  in  the  direction  of  Boulogne 
from  the  different  neighbouring  ports  and  from  Holland.  The  Emperor  had  made 
choice  of  the  15th  of  August  as  the  day  for  uniting  the  flotilla  with  the  other 
boats  stationed  in  the  port  of  Boulogne,  in  the  sight  of  the  English  vessels 
which  were  cruising  in  the  straits ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  distributed 
to  his  troops  rewards  destined  to  stimulate  their  courage,  and  to  excite  their 
impatience  to  undertake  the  invasion  of  England. 

"  But  the  satisfaction  of  Napoleon  was  not  of  long  duration.  An  emphatic 
oath  uttered  by  M.  Decres  warned  the  Emperor  that  some  accident  had  oc- 
curred. It  was  soon  ascertained  that  the  officer  who  commanded  the  first  division 
of  the  flotilla  had  run  foul  of  some  works  newly  erected  along  the  coast.  The 
shock  swamped  some  of  the  boats,  and  several  of  the  men  jumped  overboard. 
The  cries  of  the  people  at  the  seaside,  who  hastened  to  their  assistance,  excited 
much  alarm.  The  accident  was  exceedingly  mortifying,  happening,  as  it  did, 
in  the  full  gaze  of  our  enemies,  whose  telescopes  were  pointed  towards  us,  and 
it  threw  the  Emperor  into  a  violent  rage.  He  descended  from  the  throne,  and 
proceeded  with  Berthier  to  a  sort  of  terrace  which  was  formed  along  the 
water's  edge.  He  paced  to  and  fro  very  rapidly,  and  we  could  occasionally 
hear  him  utter  some  energetic  expression  indicative  of  his  vexation.  In  the 
evening,  a  grand  dinner  took  place  in  honour  of  the  inauguration.  About  six 
o'clock,  just  as  dinner  was  served  for  the  soldiers,  under  tents,  a  heavy  fall  of 
rain  came  on.  This  augmented  the  Emperor's  ill-humour,  and  formed  a 
gloomy  termination  to  a  day  which  had  commenced  so  brilliantly. ' 

It  was  now  alone  that  Napoleon  began  to  realise  that  the  descent  on 
England  was  much  more  difficult  of  operation,  and  attended  with  more  risk 
than  he  had  anticipated.  This  had  been  obvious  to  Decres  for  some  time, 
as  well  as  to  others  connected  with  the  organisation  of  the  flotilla ;  but  they 
had  been  afraid  to  urge  their  opinion  on  the  Emperor,  who  was  stubbornly  set 
on  the  execution  of  his  plan.  But  now  one  difficulty  after  another  started  up. 
He  found  that  those  combined  actions,  which  he  could  skilfully  carry  out  on 
dry  land,  were  subject  to  various  contingencies,  when  he  had  to  do  with  the  sea, 
that  rendered  them  less  certain.  Gantheaume  could  not  get  out  of  Brest. 
Villeneuve,  whilst  attempting  to  double  Cape  Finisterre,  encountered  the 
English  fleet,  under  Sir  Robert  Calder,  when  a  fog  prevented  an  action,  then 
commenced,  from  ending  in  the  entire  rout  of  the  combined  French  and 
Spanish  fleets.  Villeneuve,  feeling  his  inequality,  rapidly  retreated  to  Ferrol, 
and  then  Corunna.  When  Napoleon  received  the  news,  he  was  furious.  He 
then  only  perceived  that  with  such  a  fleet  as  France  possessed,  the  invasion 
of  England  was  impossible.  Daru,  his  private  secretary,  describes  the  effect  of 
the  news  on  the  Emperor  : — 

"  Daru  found  him  transported  with  rage ;  walking  up  and  down  the  room 
with  hurried  steps,  and  only  breaking  a  stern  silence  by  broken  exclamations 


298        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

of '  What  a  navy  !  What  sacrifices  for  nothing  !  What  an  admiral !  All  hope 
is  gone.  Villeneuve,'  instead  of  entering  the  Channel,  has  taken  refuge  in 
Ferrol.     It  is  all  over  ;  he  will  be  blockaded  there.' " 

Napoleon,  at  once,  with  the  mental  agility  that  was  such  a  distinguishing 
feature  of  his  faculties,  altered  the  whole  plan  of  his  campaign,  and  resolved  to 
fall  on  Austria  and  Russia,  in  the  place  of  England.  Nor  were  the  soldiers 
disinclined  for  a  change  of  face.  Whenever  the  British  cruisers  had  allowed  a 
little  sea-room,  the  Emperor  had  embarked  soldiers  for  a  sail  or  row  in  their 
flat-bottomed  boats  along  the  coast,  to  accustom  them  to  the  sea.  They 
suffered  extremely,  and  returned  with  cadaverous  faces,  ashen  lips,  and  a  rooted 
horror  of  the  waves. 


/^^^ 


VCaJZ^ 


"y<?  conipte  passer  le  Rhin  le  5  Vendhniaire.    Je  ne  ni' arreterai pas  que  ne  sois  stir  Pinn,  on  phis  loin. 
Je  me  confie  d,  voire  bravoure  et  h  vos  talents.     Gagnez-moi  des  victoires. — Napoleon." 

In  Europe  the  feeling  had  gathered  ground  that  the  ambition  of  Napoleon 
was  unrestrained.  On  the  26th  May,  he  had  been  crowned  King  of  Italy,  in 
the  Cathedral  of  Milan,  or,  to  be  more  exact,  had,  as  at  Notre-Dame,  crowned 
himself.  In  defiance  of  the  provisions  of  the  Treaty  of  Luneville,  which 
guaranteed  the  independence  of  Genoa,  he  proceeded  to  annex  that  Republic 
to  the  French  Empire  (9th  June).  He  then  transformed  the  Republic  of  Lucca 
into  a  principality  for  his  sister  Elise,  and  her  Corsican  husband,  Bacciochi,  to 
be  held  as  a  fief  under  the  French  Imperial  crown.  A  coalition  had  been 
entered  into  between  England,  Austria,  Russia,  and  Sweden.  Prussia  remained 
neutral,  tantalised  by  the  hopes  of  securing  Hanover,  the  prize  offered  her 
by  Napoleon. 

There  was  great  want  of  money  in  France ;  but  Bonaparte  remedied  this 
deficiency  by  seizing  on  50,000,000  francs  of  the  deposits  in  the  National 
Bank,  which  his  own  laws  had  declared  to  be  sacred  and  inalienable.  This 
deed,  which  utterly  destroyed  public  credit  for  a  time,  created  many  malcon- 
tents, and,  in  combination  with  other  causes  of  dissatisfaction,  would  have  led 


AUSTERLITZ  299 

to  a  revolution  at  home,  if  Napoleon  had  not  proved  victorious  abroad.  The 
Imperial  throne  was,  as  yet,  new  and  unsteady,  and  any  serious  reverse  would 
almost  certainly  have  overthrown  it.  Such  was  the  opinion  of  Fouche,  who 
knew  better  than  any  man  what  was  the  public  mind.  "We  must  have 
splendid  victories,  and  plenty  of  glory  to  dazzle  the  Parisians,"  said  the 
Minister  of  Police  to  the  Emperor,  "  or  all  will  be  lost,  and  everything  be  upset 
that  we  have  done."  "  You  will  be  responsible  for  the  tranquillity  and  loyalty 
of  France  during  my  absence,"  said  Napoleon.  "  Willingly,"  answered  the 
ex-Jacobin ;  "  but  you  must  gain  great  victories,  and  send  us  good  bulletins  to 
put  in  the  Moniteur." 

Austria  was  ill-prepared  for  war.  Her  best  general,  the  Archduke  Charles, 
with  her  best  troops,  was  in  Italy.  In  Germany,  she  had  the  incompetent 
Mack,  whose  measure  Nelson  had  taken  at  Naples,  and  whom  he  styled  a 
"  four-carriage  general,"  because  unable  to  move  about  unaccompanied  by  his 
luxuries.  The  Russians  were  slowly  advancing,  but  could  not  unite  with  the 
Austrians  for  many  weeks.  Vienna  was  unprotected  save  by  Mack,  and  his 
troops  were  marching  from  the  Inn  to  the  Danube,  looking  towards  Strasburg, 
whence  he  was  convinced  an  attack  would  come. 

Napoleon  knew  the  disposition  of  all  the  troops,  and  the  designs  of  all  the 
generals  of  the  enemy.  By  Fouche's  advice  he  had  entered  into  close  relations 
with  the  German  Jews,  who  had  connexions  and  relations  everywhere,  and 
were  ready  to  do  anything,  and  betray  anyone  for  money.  By  their  means, 
through  their  agents,  every  movement  made  or  contemplated  by  the  Austrians 
was  known  at  French  headquarters  ;  the  secrets  of  the  Cabinet  of  Vienna 
itself  were  revealed  ;  and  there  appears  to  have  been  scarcely  one  etat-major, 
or  general  staff,  but  had  its  spy  or  spies,  traitor  or  traitors,  sold  to  France. 

So  long  as  Napoleon  had  been  concentrating  all  his  forces  and  material  for 
a  descent  on  England,  the  Moniteur  had  been  allowed  to  attack  the  Austrian 
empire,  and  the  Russian  as  well,  with  the  greatest  rancour,  but  directly  he  had 
made  up  his  mind  to  a  sudden  volte-face,  the  tone  of  the  Government  organ 
altered,  and  expressed  the  desire  for  peace  that  animated  both  the  Emperor 
and  the  French  people.  "  We  must  assume,"  he  wrote  to  Talleyrand  on  the 
25th  August,  "an  attitude  not  of  boldness,  but  of  pusillanimity,  in  order  that 
I  may  gain  time  to  make  my  preparations."  To  Eugene  Beauharnais,  whom 
he  had  left  as  Viceroy  of  Italy,  he  gave  instructions  on  the  6th  September, 
1805,  to  "  speak  of  peace,  but  prepare  for  war." 

The  further  to  disguise  his  purpose,  he  continued  to  reside  at  Boulogne,  and 
pursue  his  preparations  against  England.  Meanwhile,  he  was  transferring  his 
troops  rapidly,  but  with  the  utmost  caution,  towards  the  German  frontier.  He 
had  an  army  at  his  command  of  nearly  200,000  men,  whereas,  at  the  time, 
there  were  only  80,000  to  oppose  him.  His  object  was  to  cut  off  the  retreat 
of.  Mack  before  the  Russians  had  arrived  on  the  scene.  The  shortest  way  led 
through  Hesse  and  the  north  of  Baden  and  Wiirtemberg ;  and  by  this  means 
he  could  unite  with  the  army  of  occupation  of  Hanover  under  Bernadotte,  and 
that  of  Holland  under  Marmont,  who  would  meet  him  at  Mayence. 


300 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


Napoleon  at  once  entered  into  secret  negotiation  with  the  Elector  ot 
Bavaria,  and  sent  him  a  letter  full  of  promises  of  accession  of  territory  if  he 
would  be  an  ally.  An  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  was  entered  into  with 
Baden,  Hesse-Darmstadt,  and  Wiirtemberg,  which  were  to  furnish  him  with 
contingents.  Soult,  Davoust,  Ney,  Lannes,  and  Murat  were  entrusted  with 
the  command  of  the  five  great  columns  that  were  rapidly  marching  from 
Boulogne. 

Mack,  making  quite  sure  that  an  attack  must  come  from  the  Rhine,  and 


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PASSAGE   OF   THE    RHINE. 
After  an  allegorical  composition  by  Ingres. 

through  the  Black  Forest,  took  possession  of  Ulm,  Meiningen,  and  the  line  of 
the  Iller  and  Upper  Danube,  where  he  fortified  himself  with  great  care. 

Meanwhile  the  seven  columns  swiftly  advanced  in  separate  lines.  Berna- 
dotte,  coming  from  Hanover,  without  scruple  violated  Prussian  neutrality  by 
crossing  Anspach,  and  united  with  the  Bavarians  in  the  rear  of  Mack.  Soult 
crossed  the  Rhine  at  Spires,  and  directed  his  march  upon  Augsburg,  in  Mack's 
rear.  Davoust,  Vandamme,  and  Marmont,  who  had  entered  Germany  from 
different  points  considerably  to  the  northward  of  Mack's  position,  turned  his 
right  wing,  and  gave  the  hand  to  Soult  at  Augsburg. 

What  is  especially  astounding  in  the  story  is,  that  no  news  of  the  march  of 


AUSTERLITZ  301 

the  enemy  reached  the  Austrian  general ;  and  he  was  completely  taken  by 
surprise,  when  it  was  too  late  for  him  to  escape  from  his  position. 

Mack  lost  his  head.  On  the  20th  October  he  agreed  to  evacuate  Ulm,  and 
give  up  his  army. 

On  that  morning  the  Austrians,  to  the  number  of  26,000,*  came  out  of 
Ulm,  and  defiled  before  Bonaparte.  The  infantry  then  threw  down  their  arms 
at  the  back  of  the  fosse ;  the  cavalry  dismounted,  and  delivered  up  arms  and 
horses ;  whilst  Napoleon  looked  on,  humming  an  opera  air. 

A  very  few  days  later  he  received  intelligence  that  somewhat  damped  his 
pride.  It  was  that  of  the  destruction  of  his  fleet  and  that  of  the  Spaniards  at 
Trafalgar,  which  happened  on  the  21st  of  October,  on  the  day  after  Mack's 


THE    BATTLE   OF   AUSTERLITZ. 
After  Gerard. 


surrender.  It  clouded  his  triumph,  and  for  a  while  depressed  his  spirits.  "  I 
cannot  be  everywhere,"  was  his  peevish  remark. 

The  way  to  Vienna  was  now  open,  and  Napoleon  entered  it  on  the  13th 
November.  On  the  7th  the  Emperor  Francis  had  escaped  from  his  capital 
into  Moravia. 

The  decisive  battle  of  the  campaign  was  fought  at  Austerlitz,  on  the 
anniversary  of  the  coronation  of  Napoleon  in  Notre-Dame. 

"  The  night  before  the  battle  the  Emperor  directed  Junot,  Duroc,  and 
Berthier  to  put  on  their  cloaks  and  follow  him,  as  he  was  going  round  to  see 
that  all  was  arranged  as  he  wished.  It  was  eleven  o'clock ;  the  bivouac  fires 
were  surrounded  by  soldiers,  among  whom  there  were  many  of  the  brave 
Guards,  who  were  afterwards  nicknamed  the  grognards  (grumblers).  It  was 
the  1st  December,  and  the  weather  was  very  severe,  but  none  cared  for  that. 
They  were  singing  and  talking,  and  many  of  them  were  engaged  in  recounting 
the  splendid  victories  of  Italy  and  of  Egypt.     The  Emperor,  wrapped  up  in 

*  Napoleon  in  his  bulletins,  of  course,  gives  false  numbers.  He  makes  them  50,000  men, 
even  80,000. 


302        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

his  redingote  grise,  passed  along  unperceived  behind  the  groups,  in  which  were 
hearts  devoted,  not  only  to  him  and  his  glory,  but  to  the  glory  of  our  arms. 
He  listened  to  their  conversation,  smiled,  and  seemed  greatly  affected. 
Suddenly  he  passed  a  bivouac  the  fire  of  which,  gleaming  full  in  his  face, 
discovered  him.  '  The  Emperor ! '  exclaimed  the  whole  group ;  *  Vive 
V Ejnpereur !  Vive  V Empereur  ! '  responded  the  next.  Along  the  whole  line, 
in  the  bivouacs  and  under  the  tents,  the  cry  of  *  Vive  V Empereur ! '  passed 
from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  rent  the  air.  The  fires  were  immediately  deserted, 
for  the  soldiers  rushed  forward  to  behold  their  beloved  chief.  They  took  the 
straw  from  their  beds,  and,  lighting  it,  made  torches,  with  which  they  illumined 
the  gloom  of  the  night,  still  shouting  '  Vive  V Empereur ! '  with  that  heartfelt 
enthusiasm  which  neither  authority,  seduction,  nor  corruption  can  ever  repress. 

"  Napoleon  was  moved.  *  Enough,  lads  !  enough  of  this  ! '  he  said.  But 
this  proof  of  attachment  afforded  him  the  liveliest  pleasure,  and  his  heart 
responded  to  it. 

"  *  Ah  !  you  seek  glory  ! '  exclaimed  an  old  soldier,  with  moustachios  which 
seemed  not  to  have  been  cut  since  the  first  passage  of  the  Alps.  'Well, 
to-morrow  the  good  soldiers  of  the  Guard  will  purchase  it  to  crown  your 
anniversary ! '  '  What  are  you  growling  about  under  those  thick  moustachios  ? ' 
said  the  Emperor,  approaching  the  old  grenadier  with  one  of  those  smiles 
which  in  him  were  so  captivating.  The  grenadier,  like  most  of  his  comrades, 
held  in  his  hand  a  torch  of  straw,  whose  light  revealed  his  swarthy,  scarred 
face,  the  expression  of  which  was  at  that  moment  most  remarkable.  His  eyes 
were  filled  with  tears,  while  a  smile  of  joy  at  sight  of  the  Emperor  was  playing 
on  his  hard  but  manly  features.  The  Emperor  repeated  his  question.  *  Faith, 
my  General,  that  is,  Sire,^  replied  the  soldier,  *I  only  say  that  we  will  thrash 
those  rascals  of  Russians,  that  is,  if  you  desire  it,  for  discipline  before  every- 
thing. So  Vive  /'Empereur ! '  and  then  fresh  shouts  conveyed  to  the  Russians 
their  death-warrant,  for  troops  so  animated  could  never  be  subdued."* 

In  the  morning  Napoleon  was  on  horseback  long  before  daylight.  Thick 
fogs  hung  over  the  plains  and  the  heights  on  which  the  Allies  were  encamped. 
The  sun  could  hardly  break  through  the  vapours,  but  hung,  as  a  red  and  lurid 
ball,  in  the  east.  Bonaparte  galloped  along  the  line,  shouting,  "  Soldiers,  we 
must  complete  this  campaign  with  a  thunderbolt ! "  And  the  soldiers  waved 
their  caps,  and  shouted,  "  Vive  V Empereur  !  vive  lejour  de  safete!'' 

Napoleon  had  taken  advantage  of  the  light  on  the  preceding  day  to 
observe  the  position  of  the  Allies  under  the  Russian  General  Kutusoff,  and 
he  had  seen  that  the  lines  were  unduly  extended.  "By  to-morrow  evening 
that  army  will  be  mine!"  he  said  with  confidence,  and  the  event  showed  that 
he  had  calculated  aright. 

The  day  ended  in  a  complete  defeat  of  the  allied  forces  of  the  Austrians 
and  Russians.  In  a  lying  bulletin  Napoleon  represented  the  French  loss,  in 
killed. and  wounded,  at  about  2500  men,  but  in  reality  it  was  double  that 
number.  At  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening  the  conqueror  issued  one  of  his 
grandiloquent  proclamations  to  the  army. 

"  Soldiers,"  he  said,  "  your  Emperor  must  speak  with  you  before  night,  and 
express  his  satisfaction  with  all  those  who  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  fight  in 
this  memorable  battle.     Soldiers  !  you  are  the  first  warriors  in  the  world  !     The 

*  Madame  Junot,  Meinoirs^  ii.  460. 


I 


THE   EMPEROR. 
From  a  drawing  by  Vigneux. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

^IFORf^^ 


AUSTERLITZ 


305 


memory  of  this  day  will  be  eternal.  So  long  as  history  and  the  world  will 
exist,  it  will  be  repeated,  after  millions  of  centuries,  that  in  the  plains  of 
Austerlitz  an  army  bought  by  the  gold  of  England,  a  Russian  army  of  76,000 
men,  has  been  destroyed  by  you.  The  miserable  remnants  of  that  army,  in 
which  the  mercantile  spirit  of  a  despicable  nation  had  placed  its  last  hopes, 
are  in  flight.  It  is  not  four  months  since  your  Emperor  said  to  you  at 
Boulogne,  *  We  are  going  to  march  to  annihilate  a  coalition  plotted  by  the 
gold  and  intrigues  of  England ' ;  and  now  the  result  is  the  destruction  of 
300,000  men  in  the  campaign  of  Ulm,  and  of  the  forces  of  two  great  monarchs. 
.  .  .  Soldiers,  I  am  satisfied  with  you.  An  army  of  100,000  men,  commanded 
by  the  Emperors  of  Russia  and  Austria,  has  been  cut  to  pieces  and  dispersed." 

The  exaggeration  employed  is  grotesque ;  but  the  French  soldiers  were 
not  disposed  to  be  critical ;  nor  were  the  public,  who  devoured  the  equally 
mendacious  bulletins  sent  to  the  Moniteur,  in  a  position  to  check  the 
numbers  which  the  Emperor  represented  as  opposed  to,  and  annihilated 
by  him. 

The  battle  of  Austerlitz  was  disastrous,  though  not  as  disastrous  as  repre- 
sented. The  Russians  lost  12,000  men,  and  retired  in  good  order.  The 
coalition  was  not  destroyed.  Another  Russian  army  was  on  its  way ;  the 
Archdukes  Charles  and  John  were  within  a  few  days'  march,  and  were 
approaching  on  Bonaparte's  flank ;  and  the  Hungarians  were  rising  en  masse. 
More  than  this,  the  financial  condition  of  France  was  at  the  moment  desperate. 
Had  the  Emperor  Francis  but  prolonged  the  struggle  for  two  months,  France 
would  have  been  bankrupt. 

This  national  bankruptcy  was  only  averted  by  the  victory  of  Austerlitz, 
by  the  weak  despair  of  Francis,  and  by  the  immense  war  indemnity  which 
Napoleon  forced  him  to  pay,  and  which  was  turned  into  the  exhausted 
exchequer. 

Unhappily,  the  heart  of  the  Emperor  Francis  failed  him,  and  Prince  John 
of  Lichtenstein,  perhaps  sold  to  the  French,  exercised  great  influence  over  his 
mind.  Francis  despatched  the  Prince  to  Napoleon  ;  and  he,  seemingly  without 
a  struggle,  agreed  to  give  up  far  more  than  Bonaparte  could  have  gained  in 
two  or  three  successful  campaigns.  Lichtenstein,  after  this  interview,  returned 
to  his  master  loaded  with  compliments ;  and  on  the  following  day  the 
Emperor  Francis  had  a  personal  interview  with  Bonaparte,  at  the  headquarters 
of  the  latter,  by  an  old  mill  where  his  bivouac  fire  was  lighted.  The  Austrian 
Emperor  saluted  Napoleon  with  "  Sir — and  brother."  "  I  receive  you,"  said 
the  Corsican,  "  in  the  only  place  which  I  have  inhabited  for  the  last  two 
months."  "You  have  made  such  good  use  of  that  habitation,"  said  Francis, 
"  that  it  should  be  grateful  to  you." 

What  passed  further  between  the  representative  of  an  ancient  dynasty  and 
the  founder  of  a  new  one  that  was  not  to  last,  is  known  only  from  what 
Napoleon  chose  to  reveal,  and  no  reliance  whatever  can  be  placed  on  his 
words. 

He  pretended  that  the  Emperor  of  Austria  said  to  him,  "  France  was 
justified    in    her    quarrel    with    England.    .    .   ,    The    English    are    a   set   of 

X 


3o6 


THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


shopkeepers,  who  set  the  Continent  on  fire,  in  order  to  secure  to  themselves  the 
commerce  of  the  world."  The  words  are  too  much  an  echo  of  his  own  furious 
declamation  against  Great  Britain,  to  be  believed  to  have  fallen  from  the^  lips 
of  the  Austrian  Emperor. 

A  treaty  was  concluded  at  Presburg,  on  the  27th  December,  1805,  by 
virtue  of  which  Bonaparte  was  recognised  as  King  of  Italy ;  the  Republic  of 
Venice  was  detached  from  Austria,  and  united  to  his  Italian  Kingdom  ;  the 


INTERVIEW    BETWEEN    NAPOLEON    AND    FRANCIS    II.    AFTER   THE   BATTLE   OF   AUSTERLITZ. 

From  a  painting  by  Gros. 


Electors  of  Wiirtemberg  and  Bavaria,  as  allies  of  France  and  traitors  to  the 
national  cause,  were  to  be  created  Kings  ;  the  Duke  of  Baden,  in  reward  for  his 
having  taken  in  good  part  the  kidnapping  and  murder  of  the  Due  d'Enghien> 
was  to  be  elevated  to  be  a  Grand-Duke ;  and  these  three  States  were  to  be 
enlarged  at  the  expense  of  Austria.  Istria  and  Dalmatia  were  ceded.  She 
agreed  to  pay  a  war  indemnity  of  140,000,000  francs.  Gallant  and  loyal 
Tyrol  was  severed  from  the  Crown  of  Austria,  and  handed  over  to  Bavaria ; 
and  Napoleon  was  constituted  "  Protector "  of  a  Confederation  of  the  Rhine, 
comprising  all  the  Western  States  of  Germany. 

There  were  other  secret  arrangements,  which  were  speedily  carried  into 


AUSTERLITZ  307 

effect.  Eugene  Beauharnais,  Viceroy  of  Italy,  Josephine's  son,  was  given 
Augusta  Amelia,  daughter  of  the  King  of  Bavaria  ;  and  Stephanie  Beauharnais, 
Eugene's  cousin,  was  united  to  the  son  and  heir  of  the  Grand-Duke  of  Baden. 
Jerome  Bonaparte  was  to  take  to  wife  a  daughter  of  the  Elector  of  Wiirtemberg. 
Such  were  the  first  royal  alliances  negotiated,  the  prelude  to  others,  in  which 
the  blood  of  the  Corsican  petty  attorney's  children  was  to  be  mixed  with  that 
of  the  most  ancient  and  princely  families  in  Europe. 


v> 


XXXVI 
NEW    FEUDALISM 

NAPOLEON  hastened  back  to  Paris,  which  he  reached  on  the  26th  January, 
1806.  He  had  received  disquieting  news  from  the  capital.  A  financial 
crash  impended,  the  inevitable  result  of  the  enormous  drain  on  the  metal 
currency  caused  by  the  preparations  for  the  descent  on  England,  and  the 
stagnation  of  all  trade  and  commerce,  save  such  as  was  connected  with 
military  works. 

Napoleon  arrived  late  in  the  night ;  and  without  undressing  and  going  to 
bed,  he  at  once  sent  for  the  Minister  of  Finance,  and  remained  closeted  with 
him  till  morning.  At  eleven  o'clock  next  day,  the  Council  of  Finance  was 
assembled,  and  M.  de  Marbois,  the  Minister,  was  dismissed — an  honest  and 
capable  man ;  but  Napoleon  was  resolved  to  make  a  scapegoat,  and  he  threw 
the  blame  of  mismanagement  on  Marbois,  and  on  the  company  of  Ouvrard 
and  Vanlerbergh,  which  had  advanced  money  to  the  Treasury,  and  had  taken 
contracts  for  the  supply  of  munitions  for  the  army.  These  money-lenders 
were  imprisoned  and  ruined  ;  and  Napoleon  endeavoured  to  divert  the  public 
suspicion  from  his  own  reckless  expenditure,  and  to  turn  the  stream  of  popular 
indignation  upon  those  who  were,  in  fact,  called  into  existence  by  the  strained 
condition  of  the  finances,  and  upon  the  Minister  who  had  been  driven  to 
desperate  expedients  to  meet  the  expenditure  always  exceeding  the  revenue. 

On  his  return  to  Paris,  the  crisis  was  already  past,  for  the  victory  of 
Austerlitz  and  the  Peace  of  Presburg  had  revived  the  confidence  of  the  French, 
and  Napoleon  was  able  to  pay  85,ocx)jOOO  francs  into  the  depleted  Treasury. 

He  drew  up  a  report  on  the  condition  of  the  Empire,  calculated  to  dazzle 
imagination,  and  stimulate  hope  for  the  future.  Everything  that  had  been 
accomplished  was  painted  in  glowing  colours,  successes  exaggerated,  achieve- 
ments represented  in  the  most  promising  aspect.  This  document  concluded 
with  a  rapid  survey  of  the  advantages  derived  by  France  from  the  dissolution 
of  the  several  coalitions  which  had  been  broken  by  the  Emperor. 

"The  first  coalition,  concluded  by  the  Treaty  of  Campo-Formio,  gave  to 
the  Republic  the  frontier  of  the  Rhine,  and  the  States  now  forming  the  king- 
dom of  Italy ;  the  second  invested  it  with  Piedmont ;  the  third  united  to  its 
federal  system  Venice  and  Naples.  Let  England  be  now  convinced  of  its 
impotence,  and  not  attempt  a  fourth  coalition.  The  House  of  Naples  has 
irrevocably  lost  its  dominions ;  Russia  owes  the  escape  of  its  army  solely  to 

308 


NEW    FEUDALISM 


.  /309 


the  capitulation  which  our  generosity  awarded ;  the  Italian  Peninsula,  as  a 
whole,  forms  a  part  of  the  great  Empire.  The  Emperor  has  guaranteed,  as 
supreme  Chief,  the  Sovereigns  and  Constitutions  which  compose][its  several 
parts." 

The  disaster  of  Trafalgar  was  alluded  to  by  the  Emperor  in  these  evasive 
terms :  "  The  tempests  have  made  us  lose  some  vessels  after  a  combat  impru- 
dently engaged  in."  He  could  afford  to  use  these  words,  as  the  real  facts  were 
not  allowed  to  be  published,  and  leaked  into  France  only  through  stray  copies 
of  foreign  papers  surreptitiously  brought  over. 

The  return  of  Napoleon  to  Paris  was  commemorated  by  the  column  in  the 
Place  Vendome,  composed  of  five  hundred  Austrian  cannon  ;  it  was  on  the 
model  of  the  pillar  of  Trajan   at   Rome;    and  was  sur- 
mounted  by  a  statue  of  the  Emperor.      In  a  spiral 
band  encircling  the  column,  was  a  series  of  groups 
representing  the  victories  of  Napoleon,  from  the 
raising  of  the  camp  at  Boulogne  to  the  entry  of 
the  Imperial  Guard  into  Paris  on  January  27th, 
1806,  in  eighty  bas-reliefs.      The  statue  at  the 
summit,  by  Chaudet,  showed   the  Emperor  in 
Roman  habit,  chlamys  and  cothurnus,  holding  a 
winged  figure  of  Victory  in  his  left  hand. 

After  the  Austrian  campaign,  Naples  had 
been  invaded  and  occupied  by  French  troops,  to 
the  number  of  fifty  thousand,  under  the  command 
of  Joseph  Bonaparte,  and  on  the  15th  February, 
Naples  saw  its  future  sovereign  enter  within  its  walls. 
On  April  14th,  Napoleon,  by  decree,  created  his  brother 
King  of  the  Two  Sicilies.  At  the  same  time,  the 
Venetian  States  were  definitely  annexed  to  the 
Kingdom  of  Italy.  "  The  interests  of  our  Crown,"  said  Napoleon,  "  and 
the  tranquillity  of  the  Continent  of  Europe,  require  that  we  should  secure  in 
a  stable  and  definite  manner  the  fate  of  the  people  of  Naples  and  Sicily,  fallen 
into  our  power  by  the  right  of  conquest,  and  forming  part  of  the  grand 
empire." 

To  Miot  de  Melito,  Napoleon  wrote  on  the  last  day  of  January,  1806: — 

"  You  are  going  to  rejoin  my  brother  (Joseph).  You  will  tell  him  that 
I  have  made  him  King  of  Naples,  and  that  nothing  will  be  changed  as  regards 
his  relations  with  France.  But  impress  upon  him  that  the  least  hesitation,  the 
slightest  wavering,  will  ruin  him  entirely.  I  have  another  person  in  my  mind 
who  will  replace  him  should  he  refuse.  I  shall  call  that  other  Napoleon,  and  he 
shall  be  my  son.  It  was  the  conduct  of  my  brother  at  the  Coronation,  and  his 
refusal  to  accept  the  Crown  of  Italy,  which  made  me  call  Eugene  my  son.  I 
am  determined  to  give  the  same  title  to  another  should  he  oblige  me.  At 
present  all  feelings  of  affection  yield  to  State  reasons.  I  recognise  as  relations 
only  those  who  serve  me.  My  fortune  is  not  attached  to  the  name  of 
Bonaparte,  but  to  that  of  Napoleon.     It  is  with  my  fingers  and  my  pen  that 


JOSEPH,    KING   OF   NAPLES. 
From  a  painting  by  Lefevre, 


3ic^  -THE  LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE 

I  make  children.  To-day,  I  can  love  only  such  as  I  esteem.  Joseph  must 
forget  all  our  ties  of  childhood.  Let  him  make  himself  esteemed !  Let  him 
acquire  glory.  Let  him  have  a  leg  broken  in  battle !  Then  I  shall  respect 
him.  Let  him  give  up  his  old  notions.  Let  him  not  dread  fatigue.  Look  at 
me ;  the  campaign  I  have  just  terminated,  the  movement,  the  excitement,  have 
made  me  stout.  I  believe  that  if  all  the  kings  of  Europe  were  to  combine 
against  me,  I  should  have  a  ridiculous  paunch. 

"  I  offer  my  brother  a  fine  opportunity.  Let  him  govern  his  new  States 
wisely  and  firmly.  ...  I  can  endure  to  have  no  relations  in  obscurity. 
Those  who  do  not  rise  with  me  shall  no  longer  form  part  of  my  family.  I  am 
creating  a  family  of  kings,  or  rather  of  viceroys,  for  the  King  of  Italy,  the 
King  of  Naples,  and  others,  will  all  be  included  in  a  Federative  system. 
However,  I  am  willing  to  forget  what  two  of  my  brothers  have  done  against 
me ;  let  Lucien  abandon  his  wife,  and  I  will  give  him  a  kingdom.  As  for 
Jerome,  he  has  partially  repaired  his  faults.  But  I  shall  never  permit  the  wife 
of  Lucien  to  seat  herself  by  my  side." 

At  the  same  time  that  Joseph  was  made  king,  Berthier  was  elevated  to  be 
Prince  of  Neufchatel. 

Talleyrand  was  then  created  Prince  of  Benevento,  and  General  Bernadotte, 
son  of  a  poor  saddler  at  Pau,  in  the  south  of  France,  in  turn  became  Prince  of 
Pontecorvo.  This  was  not  because  Napoleon  liked  Bernadotte  ;  on  the  con- 
trary, he  hated  him,  but  because  his  wife  was  the  sister  of  that  of  Joseph,  a 
daughter  of  the  soap-boiler.  "  You  .  understand,"  he  wrote  to  the  King  of 
Naples,  "  in  giving  the  title  of  duke  and  prince  to  Bernadotte,  it  is  through 
consideration  for  your  wife,  for  there  are  several  generals  who  have  served  me 
better,  and  who  are  more  devoted  to  me  than  he.  But  I  thought  it  suitable 
that  the  brother-in-law  of  the  Queen  of  Naples  should  hold  a  distinguished 
rank."  Then  Cambaceres  was  created  Duke  of  Parma,  and  Le  Brun,  Duke  of 
Piacenza.  Napoleon  now  married  his  sister,  Pauline,  widow  of  General 
Leclerc,  to  Prince  Borghese,  whereby,  as  she  exultingly  said,  she  became  "  a 
real  princess,"  and  received  the  Duchy  of  Guastalla.  His  sister  Elise  was  created 
Princess  of  Lucca  Piombino ;  and  Murat,  who  had  married  Napoleon's  sister, 
Caroline,  was  made  Grand  Duke  of  Berg  and  Cleves.  Marshal  Soult  was 
given  the  Duchy  of  Dalmatia ;  that  of  Istria  was  conferred  on  Marshal 
Bessieres;  that  of  Friuli  was  given  to  his  favourite  aide-de-camp  and  Grand 
Marshal  of  the  palace,  Duroc  ;  and  that  of  Cadore,  to  Champagny,  formerly  an 
officer  in  the  navy,  but  now  one  of  Bonaparte's  favourite  diplomatists.  The 
Duchy  of  Belluno  was  granted  to  Marshal  Victor,  that  of  Conegliano  to 
Marshal  Moncey,  that  of  Treviso  to  Mortier,  that  of  Feltri  to  General  Clarke, 
that  of  Vicenza  to  Caulaincourt,  that  of  Bassano  to  the  Secretary-Minister-of- 
State  Majret ;  and  Savary,  who  had  superintended  the  murder  of  the  Due 
d'Enghien,  was  elevated  to  be  Duke  of  Rovigo.  Henceforth  Murat,  the  son 
of  a  petty  innkeeper,  whose  mother  was  wont  to  go  out  charing  at  a  franc  a 
day,  never  signed  his  name  but  as  "  Joachim,  Grand  Duke  of  Berg " ;  and 
Berthier,  son  of  a  poor  and  obscure  officer,  signed,  "  Alexander,  Prince 
of  Neufchatel,"  just  as  the  Czar  signed,  *' Alexander,  Emperor  of  all  the 
Russias." 


NEW    FEUDALISM 


311 


Fouche,  the  scoundrelly  Minister  of  Police,  was  created  Duke  of  Gtfanto ; 
the  paladin  Lannes  became  Duke  of  Montebello  ;  the  Jew  Massena  was  raised 
to  be  Duke  of  Rivoli ;  and  Augereau  to  be  Duke  of  Castiglione.  With  some 
of  these  titles  territories  were  granted  as  military  fiefs  ;  where  not,  pensions 
were  drawn  from  the  conquered  or  tributary  countries.  Thus  the  Kingdom  of 
Naples  and  that  of  Italy  were  taxed  to  an  enormous  extent;  and  Hanover  was 
made  to  contribute  more  than  ;^90,ooo  sterling  per  annum  to  keep  up  the  state 
and  dignity  of  these  plebeian  upstarts. 


THE    I9TH    MAY,    187 1. 
From  a  painting  by  Paul  Robert. 


All  the  members  of  the  Senate,  indiscriminately,  were  ennobled,  and  given 
the  title  and  status  of  Count.  No  satirist  could  have  surpassed  the  farcical 
scene  that  ensued.  Cambaceres,  in  announcing  the  Emperor's  beneficence  and 
magnanimity,  exclaimed,  "  Senators,  you  are  no  longer  plebeians,  or  simple 
citizens.  The  statute. which  I  hold  in  my  hand  confers  on  you  the  majestic 
title  of  Count !  " 

Half  of  these  conscript  fathers  were  men  who  had  been  rabid  Jacobins,  had 
mouthed  and  postured  as  adherents  to  the  principle  of  equality,  and  had  de- 
nounced,' titles  and  distinctions  ;  nevertheless,  they  roared  out  their  applause, 
and  their  excitement  and  delight  became  frenzied,  when  they  further  learned 
that  their  titles  would  be  hereditary. 


312        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

A  note  in  the  handwriting  of  Napoleon  in  1807  shows  that  it  was  his 
intention  to  have  thirty  dukes  established  in  Paris,  each  with  at  least  ;^4000  a 
year,  to  shed  lustre  on  the  throne  ;  also  [sixty  counts,  with  ;^2000  a  year  ;  and 
four  hundred  barons,  with  at  least  ;^200  a  year  each.  The  dukes  and  the 
counts  were  to  be  given  money  to  enable  them  to  purchase  residences  worthy 
of  their  titles  and  the  state  they  were  expected  to  keep  up. 

With  Lucien,  Napoleon  had  much  trouble.  He  had  fallen  into  disfavour 
after  Napoleon  became  First  Consul  for  life,  because  he  endeavoured  to  press 
his  advice  on  his  elder  brother,  and  somewhat  freely  boasted  of  the  services  he 
had  rendered  on  the  i8th  Brumaire.     Then  Lucien  entered  into  an  intrigue 


THE    VENDOME   COLUMN,    6tH   APRIL,    1814. 
With  the  statues  by  Chaudet  and  Seurre. 

with  Madame  Jouberton,  the  wife  of  a  stockbroker,  who  divorced  her,  where- 
upon Lucien  married  the  woman.  Napoleon  in  vain  endeavoured  to  induce 
him  to  break  the  connection,  and  marry  a  princess.  If  he  would  do  this,  he 
offered  to  provide  him  with  a  throne.  To  Lucien's  credit,  he  refused.  He 
shared  with  his  mother  the  opinion  that  this  reign  of  Napoleon  was 
ephemeral. 

Having  failed  to  get  Lucien  to  take  a  crown,  Napoleon  asked  him  to  let 
him  have  his  daughter,  Charlotte,  to  dispose  of  to  the  Prince  of  the  Asturias. 
To  this  Lucien  consented,  and  Charlotte  was  sent  to  Paris.  But  Napoleon  was 
fond  of  peeping  into  private  letters,  and  he  read  those  addressed  by  his  niece 
to  her  father,  and  discovering  therein  strictures  on  his  roturier  court,  on  the 
manners  of  his  new  dukes  and  duchesses,  and  on  the  prevailing  laxity  of 
morals,  he  sent  her  precipitately  home. 


NEW    FEUDALISM  313 

From  Milan,  on  December  17th,  1807,  Napoleon  wrote  to  his  brother 
Joseph  relative  to  Lucien  : — 

"  I  saw  Lucien  at  Mantua.  I  think  he  promised  to  send  me  his  eldest 
daughter.  This  young  person  must  be  in  Paris  in  January.  Lucien, 
who  appeared  to  be  swayed  by  conflicting  feelings,  had  not  the  strength 
of  mind  to  come  to  a  decision.  I  did  all  I  could  to  persuade  him  to 
employ  his  talents  for  me  and  for  his  country.  If  he  wishes  to  send 
me  his  daughter,  she  must  start  without  delay,  and  he  must  send  me  a 
declaration  placing  her  entirely  at  my  disposal.  .  .  .  The  interests  of  Lucien's 
family  will  be  provided  for.  A  divorce  from  Madame  Jouberton  once  pro- 
nounced, and  Lucien  established  in  a  foreign  country  {i.e.  as  King),  he  will  be 
at  liberty  to  live  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  Madame  Jouberton,  but  not 
in  France ;  nor  must  he  reside  with  her  as  if  she  were  a  princess  and  his  wife. 
Madame  Jouberton  shall  have  a  high  title  conferred  upon  her  at  Naples  or 
elsewhere.  Politics  alone  influence  me  in  this  matter.  I  have  no  desire  to 
meddle  with  the  tastes  and  passions  of  Lucien." 

That  Lucien  was  not  actuated  by  Republican  opinions,  as  he  pretended,  is 
clear  from  his  after-conduct,  in  buying  of  the  Pope  the  title  of  Prince  of 
Canino. 

The  abbey  of  S.  Denis  had  been  the  place  of  sepulture  of  the  Kings  of 
France.  Their  bodies  had  been  torn  from  their  tombs  by  the  sans-culottes, 
and  dispersed.  Napoleon  now  restored  the  church,  reorganised  the  chapter, 
and  converted  the  minster  into  a  place  of  sepulture  for  the  new  Imperial 
dynasty.  As  yet,  indeed,  he  had  no  dead  Bonapartes  to  lay  in  it;  but  he 
prepared  chapels  for  such  as  were  to  come,  three  close  by  the  spaces  occupied 
by  the  tombs  of  the  French  kings  of  the  first,  second,  and  third  race ;  and  the 
fourth  chapel  was  to  contain  his  own  tomb,  and  those  of  the  emperors,  his 
successors. 

The  thought  of  Charlemagne  was  before  him  now,  as  had  previously  been 
that  of  Alexander,  and  it  was  in  imitation  of  Charlemagne  that  he  created  his 
military  fiefs.     But  that  was  not  his  sole  reason. 

"  I  felt  my  isolated  position,"  said  Napoleon  later,  to  explain  this  creation 
of  a  new  order  of  kings,  princes,  and  dukes,  "  and  I  threw  out  on  all  sides  of 
me  anchors  of  safety  into  the  ocean  by  which  I  was  surrounded.  Where  could 
I  so  reasonably  look  for  support  as  among  my  own  relations  ?  Could  I  expect 
as  much  from  strangers  ?  " 

The  elevation  of  Louis  Bonaparte  to  the  throne  of  Holland  followed  not 
long  after. 

A  few  words  may  be  said  here  about  Madame  Mere  at  this  period.  As 
already  said,  she  was  not  present  at  the  coronation  of  Napoleon,  being  at 
Rome  at  the  time  with  Lucien.  Silvagni  says,  in  his  interesting  book  on  the 
Court  and  Society  of  Rome  in  the  i8th  and  19th  centuries  : — 

"  Madame  Laetitia  was  tall,  with  a  fair  complexion,  and  black  hair,  which 
she  wore  curled  upon  her  forehead ;  her  eyes  were  dark,  and  rather  small,  her 
figure  lithe  and  graceful,  her  hands  and  feet  thin  and  well  shaped ;  her 
countenance   regular   and    dignified.      She  had    partially   lost   the   forefinger 


314        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

of  her  right  hand  through  an  unsuccessful  operation,  which  made  writing 
difficult  to  her.  She  knew  nothing  of  either  French  or  Italian  literature,  and 
still  spoke  the  Corsican  dialect,  while  her  acquaintance  with  the  French 
language  was  below  mediocrity.  Finding  she  could  not  reconcile  the  two 
brothers,  Napoleon  and  Lucien,  she  preferred,  like  a  good  mother,  to  follow 
the  less  fortunate  into  exile. 

"  Madame  Laetitia  was  a  very  superior  woman,  who  kept  herself  aloof  from 
politics,  could  hold  her  tongue,  was  prudent  in  her  dealings  with  her  daughters- 
in-law,  and  good  and  discreet  in  all  her  ways.  She  received  very  little,  and  saw 
very  few  people.  .  .  .  Napoleon  had  always  the  greatest  respect  for  his  mother, 
and  treated  her  most  liberally.  He  gave  her  the  chateau  of  Pont-sur-Seine. 
Here  it  was  that  Madame  Mere  held  her  little  court ;  but  so  quietly  and 
economically,  that  she  never  spent  her  million  francs  of  revenue.  The 
Emperor,  who  liked  to  see  his  relations  and  great  officials  spend  the  incomes 
he  had  awarded  them,  remarked  to  her  one  day,  '  Madame  Laetitia,  I  wish 
I  could  see  you  get  through  your  million  per  annum.'  '  I  will  spend  it,'  she 
replied,  'on  condition  that  you  give  me  two.'"* 

In  fact,  Madame  Laetitia  never  could  be  brought  to  believe  that  the 
sudden  elevation  of  her  son  would  last ;  and  she  saved  money  against  the  evil 
day,  which  her  good  sense  told  her  must  inevitably  come  on  her  and  the  rest 
of  the  family. 

Jerome  Bonaparte  got  into  a  scrape  by  marrying  a  good-looking  American 
young  woman,  Elizabeth  Patterson,  of  Scoto-Irish  descent.  On  the  20th  of 
April,  1804,  Decres,  French  Minister  of  Marine,  by  order  of  the  First  Consul, 
directed  M.  Pichon,  Consul-General  of  France  in  New  York,  not  to  advance 
any  money  on  the  order  of  citizen  Jerome. 

"  Jerome  has  received  orders,  in  his  capacity  of  Lieutenant  of  the  Fleet,  to 
return  to  France  by  the  first  French  frigate  that  leaves ;  and  the  execution  of 
this  order,  on  which  the  First  Consul  insists  in  the  most  positive  manner,  can 
alone  regain  him  his  affection.  But  what  the  First  Consul  has  prescribed  for 
me,  above  everything,  is  to  order  you  to  prohibit  all  captains  of  French  vessels 
from  receiving  on  board  the  young  person  with  whom  the  citizen  Jerome  has 
connected  himself,  it  being  his  intention  that  she  shall  by  no  means  come  into 
France,  and  his  will  that,  should  she  arrive,  she  be  not  suffered  to  land,  but  be 
sent  immediately  back  to  the  United  States."  f 

"  Jerome  is  wrong,"  wrote  Napoleon  to  Decres,  "  to  fancy  that  he  will  find 
in  me  affection  that  will  yield  to  his  weakness.  Sole  fabricator  of  my  destiny, 
I  owe  nothing  to  my  brothers.  In  what  I  have  done  for  glory,  they  have 
found  means  to  reap  for  themselves  an  abundant  harvest ;  but  they  must  not, 
on  that  account,  abandon  the  field  when  there  is  something  still  to  be  reaped. 
They  must  not  leave  me  isolated,  and  deprived  of  the  aid  and  services  which  I 
have  a  right  to  expect  of  them.  If  I  completely  abandon  him  (Lucien) 
who  in  maturer  years  has  thought  proper  to  withdraw  himself  from  my  direc- 
tion, what  has  Jerome  to  expect?  So  young  yet,  and  only  known  by  his 
forgetfulness  of  his  duties,  assuredly  if  he  does  nothing  for  me,  I  see  in  it  the 
decree  of  fate  which  has  determined  that  I  ought  to  do  nothing  for  him."  On 
one  condition  alone  would  Napoleon  forgive  his  brother.   "  I  will  receive  Jerome 

SiLVAGNi :  La  Corte  e  la  Societa  Romana  nei  secoli  xviii  et  xix,  1887,  iii.  c.  41. 
t  Life  and  Letters  of  Madame  Bonaparte,  1879,  P-  25. 


NEW    FEUDALISM 


315 


if,  leaving  in  America  the  young  person  in  question,  he  shallj  come  hither  to 
associate  himself  with  my  fortunes.  Should  he  bring  her  along]with  him,  she 
shall  not  put  foot  on  the  territory  of  France."  * 


Jerome  was  obliged  to  return  to  France,  and  he  parted  from  his  giddy- 
headed  young  wife  with  vows  of  eternal  fidelity,  which,  to  her  great  disgust,  he 
did  not  observe.  Her  empty  head  was  filled  with  ambition,  and  the  rest  of  her 
life  was  consumed  with  mortification  that  she  had  not  become  a  Queen. 

Jerome  was  made  of  inferior  stuff  to  Lucien,  and  he  speedily  agreed  to 
repudiate  his  wife,  who  had  nothing  but  beauty  to  commend  her,  and  to  place 
his  fortunes  unreservedly  in  the  Emperor's  hands.  But  now  a  new  difficulty 
arose.  Pope  Pius  VII.  had  been  fretting  over  his  dis- 
appointment at  not  being  paid  with  the  Legations,  for 
his  complaisance  at  the  coronation ;  and  when 
Napoleon  applied  to  him  to  pronounce  the 
marriage  of  his  brother  and  Elizabeth  Patterson 
void,  he  took  a  malicious  pleasure  in  refusing 
to  do  so.  The  Court  of  Rome  is  sufficiently 
unscrupulous  about  marriage  matters.-|-  We 
may  be  quite  sure  that  no  moral  scruple 
touched  the  Pope.  According  to  the  decree  of 
the  Council  of  Trent,  a  canonical  excuse  for 
the  dissolution  of  a  marriage  had  been  pro- 
vided, if  the  alliance  had  been  conducted  in  a 
clandestine  manner.  But  such  a  decree  could 
only  take  effect  where  the  decisions  of  the  Council 
had  been  formally  published  ;  and  the  Pope,  instead 
of  taking  the  broad  ground  that  what  God  had  joined 
together  no  man  might  put  asunder,  with  the  charac- 
teristic subtlety  of  a  pettifogging  mind,  alleged  that  the  most  scrupulous 
examination  having  failed  to  discover  that  the  decrees  of  the  Council  had 
been  promulgated  in  the  United  States,  it  was  not  possible  for  him  to  annul 
the  marriage ;  and  with  equally  characteristic  cant,  declared  that  to  pronounce 
the  desired  dissolution  would  be  "  to  render  himself  culpable  of  an  abominable 
abuse  of  authority  before  the  tribunal  of  God."  | 

Napoleon  found  his  own  Council  of  State  more  compliant  than  the  Pope ; 
and   on    the   ground   that   the  marriage   was   contracted    when    Jerome   was 


JEROME. 
From  a  portrait  by  Kinson. 


*  Life  and  Letters  of  Madame  Bonaparte,  1879,  p.  26. 

t  As  in  the  many  cases  in  which  she  allows  uncles  to  marry  nieces ;  a  recent  instance  was  that  of 
the  Due  d'Aosta,  1888  ;  and  in  which  she  annuls  marriages,  as  that  of  Monacho-Hamilton,  1880. 

+  Pius  VII.  to  Napoleon,  June,  1808.  The  hypocrisy  of  the  refusal  was  revolting.  No  such  scruple 
was  felt  by  the  same  Pope  Pius  in  dissolving  the  marriage  of  the  Due  de  Berri,  performed  in  1806  in 
England,  where  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent  had  never  been  published.  There  was  so  little 
ground  for  annulUng  this  marriage,  that  the  daughters  of  the  Duke  and  of  Madame  Brown  were  made 
Countesses  by  Louis  XVIII. ,  and  were  declared  legitimate  by  Pius  VII.  But  where  his  mean  spite 
dictated  his  conduct,  there  his  refusal  was  cloaked  with  the  excuse  that  to  annul  Jerome's  marriage  would 
be  "an  abominable  abuse  before  the  throne  of  God."     Such  hypocrisy  makes  the  gorge  rise. 


3i6        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

under  age,  and  without  the  consent  of  his  guardian,  it  was  declared  null  and 
void. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  Peace  of  Tilsit,  July,  1807,  Napoleon  informed 
Jerome  that  the  members  of  the  Imperial  family  were  required  to  form  alliances 
which  would  support  his  throne.  Jerome  had  been  accorded  the  throne 
of  Westphalia,  which  was  formed  out  of  the  territories  of  the  Grand  Duke  of 
Hesse,  of  that  of  Brunswick,  together  with  certain  Prussian  Provinces 
(i8th  August,  1807);  and  on  the  preceding  12th  August  he  was  married  to 
Frederica  Catherina,  daughter  of  the  newly-created  King  of  Wurtemberg,  but 
not  till  two  unsuccessful  attempts  had  already  been  made  to  obtain  for  him  an 
alliance  with  other  Princesses.  In  Westphalia  he  launched  forth  into  the  most 
licentious  excesses,  and  made  himself  generally  abhorred  by  all  classes.* 

Napoleon  did  not  answer  the  Pope  by  letter  till  after  Austerlitz  ;  but  he 
showed  Pius  that  he  was  not  inclined  to  treat  his  scruples  with  consideration. 
He  occupied  Ancona  with  a  detachment,  under  Saint  Cyr,  without  troubling 
himself  to  announce  this  infraction  of  territorial  rights*  to  the  Papal  Govern- 
ment. 

When  the  coast  of  Holland  had  been  menaced  by  the  English  and  Swedes, 
during  the  campaign  in  Austria,  Napoleon  had  sent  his  brother  Louis  with  an 
army  to  its  assistance.  This  army  took  up  its  position  on  the  frontiers  of 
Westphalia.  Immediately  after  the  battle  of  Austerlitz,  Louis  hastened  to 
congratulate  his  brother,  then  on  his  way  to  Paris,  and  encountered  him  at 
Strasburg.  Napoleon  received  him  very  coldly.  "  What  has  made  you  leave 
Holland?"  he  asked.  Louis  replied  that  it  was  generally  reported  that 
Napoleon  had  determined  to  erect  the  Batavian  Republic  into  a  Monarchy. 
''  These  rumours,"  said  he,  "  are  not  pleasing  to  this  free  and  independent 
people  ;  and  I  do  not  like  to  hear  them  myselff 

Louis,  whose  honesty  and  disinterestedness  are  beyond  suspicion,  was  no 
more  consulted  in  the  matter  than  were  Joseph  and  Jerome.  As  Lanfrey 
points  out,  this  reluctance  of  the  brothers  of  Napoleon  to  submit  to  be  what  he 
pleased  to  make  of  them,  shows  that  they  had  little  confidence  in  him.  "  There 
entered  into  their  scruples  at  least  as  much  mistrust  towards  so  exacting  a 
master,  as  mistrust  of  fortune." 

"  Napoleon,"  says  Louis,  in  the  Memoirs  he  dictated,  "  informed  him  that 
his  wishes  were  not  to  be  considered  in  this  matter,  but  as  a  subject  he  was 
bound  to  obey.  Louis  considered  that  he  could  be  constrained  by  force ; 
and  that  as  the  Emperor  was  absolutely  determined  in  the  matter,  it  might 
happen  to  him  as  to  Joseph,  who,  having  refused  Italy,  was  forced  upon 
Naples.  However,  he  made  a  final  attempt  ;  he  wrote  to  his  brother  that 
he  felt  how  necessary  it  was  that  the  brothers  of  the  Emperor  should  depart 
out  of  France,  and  that  he  would  like  to  be  appointed  Governor  of  Genoa  or 
Piedmont." 

^     Louis  was  recognised  King  of  Holland  on  the  5th  of  June,  1806.     Holland 
I  sent  her  ambassadors  on  the  occasion ;  the  Court  was  at  St.  Cloud,  where  the 

*  Geheime  Geschichte  des  Westphdlischen  Hoffes  zu  Cassel,  S.  Petersburg,  1814. 
t  Doctmtefits  hist,  sur  la  Hollande ^  par  le  roi  Louis,  Lond.  182 1. 


NEW   FEUDALISM 


317 


Emperor  presented  to  them  his  nephew,  the  son  of  Louis  and  Hortense.  The 
child,  then  five  years  old,  thinking  to  show  off  his  acquirements,  began  at 
once  to  recite  La  Fontaine's  fable  of  "  The  Frogs  asking  Jupiter  for  a  King." 
Whether  true,  or  ben  trovato,  the  story  circulated,  and  made  Napoleon  at  the 
time  vastly  angry.* 

Louis  resigned  himself  to  be  king  over  the  frogs  and  marshes,  and  during 
his  reign  lost  his  little  son.  He  was  a  good  and  kind  man,  and  did  his  utmost 
to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  his  subjects,  and  to  rule  with  equity. 

At  Naples  Joseph  had  not  an  easy  time  of  it:  he  was  desirous,  as  was 
Louis,  of  winning  the  love  of  his  subjects,  but  was  allowed  very  little  liberty  by 
his  imperious  as  well  as  imperial  brother.     He  was  taken  to  task  for  every 
token  of  mildness  he  exhibited,  and  was  goaded  on  to 
acts  of  violence. 

"My  brother,"  wrote  Napoleon  to  Joseph  on 
March  8th,  1806,  "  I  see  that  in  one  of  your  procla- 
mations   you    promise    not    to    levy    any    war 
contributions,  and  that  the  soldiers  are  not  to 
exact   meals   from  their   hosts.      It  is  not  by 
cajoling  people  that  you  win  them,  and  it  is 
not  by  such  measures  that  you  will  be  able  to 
recompense  your  army.     Lay  a  contribution  of 
thirty  million  francs  on  the  kingdom  of  Naples, 
remount   your   cavalry   and   artillery,   &c.      It 
v/ould  be  too  ridiculous  if  the  conquest  of  Naples 
were  not  to  procure  the  well-being  of  my  army. 
.  .  .  Massena  should  be  settled  at  Naples,  with  the 
title  of  prince,  and  a  large  revenue." 

Only  six  days  before,  he  had  written  to  Joseph  com- 
plaining that  this  Jew  was  a  thief,  and  that  he  had  stolen 
.three  million  francs  ;  and  four  days  later  he  wrote  : — 


LOUIS. 
From  a  portrait  by  Lefevre. 


"  Advise  Massena  to  give  back  the  six  million  francs  he  has  taken.  The 
only  way  he  has  of  saving  himself  is  to  restore  them  quickly.  .  .  .  There  is 
too  much  brigandage.  Have  Saint  Cyr  watched.  The  details  of  their  em- 
bezzlements are  incredible ;  I  learned  them  from  the  Austrian,  who  blushed  at 
them." 

"  My  brother,"  he  wrote  on  the  22nd  April,  1806,  "  I  see  with  pleasure  that 
you  have  burned  an  insurgent  village.  I  presume  that  you  allowed  the  soldiers 
to  pillage  it.  That  is  the  way  in  which  villages  which  revolt  should  be 
treated." 

His  treatment  of  brothers,  uncles,  relatives,  was  rough  and  humiliating. 
Cardinal  Fesch,  his  mother's  half-brother,  he  treated  with  scant  courtesy.  Thus 
he  wrote  to  him  (30th  January,  1806) : — 

"  I  have  found  your  reflections  on  Cardinal  Ruffo  very  mean  and  puerile. 
You  behave  like  a  woman  in  Rome.  You  meddle  with  things  which 
you  do  not  understand." 


Madame  JuNOT,  Memoirs,  ii.  506. 


3i8        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


All  the  Bonaparte  family  resembled  the  mother  in  face,  but  Napoleon  was 
most  like  his  father,  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  offensive  suggestion  that  he  was 
in  reality  the  son  of  M.  de  Marbeuf  There  was  absolutely  nothing  to  give 
colour  to  this  scandal,  saving  the  fact  that  Marbeuf  had  shown  kindness  to 
the  boy,  had  placed  him  in  Brienne,  and  furnished  him  with  pocket-money. 
We  can  sympathise  with  Napoleon  in  his  outbursts  of  fury  when  he  saw  such 
slanders  against  the  honour  of  his  mother  in  the  pamphlets  that  issued  from  the 
London  press,  and  were  smuggled  into  France. 

"  The  great  difference  in  the  figures  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Bona- 
parte family,"  says  Madame  Junot,  "while  their  countenances  were  so  similar, 
was  ,very  extraordinary.     Their  heads  possessed    the   same   type,    the   same 
features,  the   same  eyes,  the   same   expression    (always 
excepting  that  of  the  Emperor);  beyond  this  nothing 
could    be    more   unlike.      The    brothers    were    very 
dissimilar.     The  Emperor,  the  King  of  Spain,  and 
the  King  of  Holland,  were  all  three  perfectly  well 
made,  though  small ;    while  the  persons  of  the 
Prince   of   Canino    (Lucien)    and    the    King   of 
Westphalia  were  as  much  in  contrast  with  them 
and  with  each  other  as  their  sisters.     The  King 
of  Westphalia's  head  and  shoulders  resembled 
those  of  the  Princess  Caroline ;  and  the  Prince 
of    Canino,    much   taller   and    larger   than    his 
brothers,  exhibited  the  same  want  of  harmony 
in  his  form  as  the  Grand  Duchess  of  Tuscany 
(Elise).     There  was  one  point  of  general  resem- 
blance, one  countenance,  that  of  Madame  Mere, 
in  which  all  her  eight  children  might  be  recognised, 
not  only  in   feature,  but  in  the  peculiar  expression 
PAULINE.  of  each."* 

From  a  painting  by  Lefevre.  "  PauHne  was  of  mcdium  height,  of  a  marvellous 

pink  and  white  complexion,  with  sparkling  eyes, 
black  hair,  a  Grecian  profile,  and  such  a  perfectly-formed  body,  that  she  sat  as 
a  nude  model  to  Canova,  and  may  be  admired  in  the  Villa  Borghese  at  Rome, 
under  the  semblance  of  Venus  Victrix.  Before  Napoleon  made  Prince 
Borghese  Governor  of  Piedmont,  he  had  conferred  the  title  of  Duchess  of 
Guastalla  on  his  sister.  When  she  was  made  aware  of  this,  Pauline  went  to 
her  brother,  and  the  following  conversation  ensued  : — 

"*  Where  is  Guastalla,  my  good  little  brother?  Is  it  a  large  town,  with  a 
fine  palace,  and  many  -subjects  ? '  '  Guastalla  is  a  village,  a  small  place  in  the 
states  of  Parma  and  Piacenza,'  replied  Napoleon  shortly.  '  A  village  ! '  cried 
the  Princess,  throwing  herself  down  in  an  easy  chair.  '  You  treat  me  very 
shabbily,  brother.  And  what  would  you  have  me  do  there  ? '  '  What  you  like.' 
*  What  I  like ! '  and  she  began  to  cry.  '  Annonciade  (Caroline)  is  a  Grand 
Duchess,  and  she  is  younger  than  I  am.  Why  should  she  have  more  than  I  ? 
She  has  a  kingdom,  she  has  ministers.  Napoleon,  I  warn  you,  I  will  scratch 
out  your  eyes  if  I  am  not  better  treated  !  And  my  poor  Camille,  why  don't 
you  do  something  for  him  ? '  '  He  is  an  imbecile.'  '  That  is  true  ;  but  what 
does  that  matter  ? '  Napoleon  shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  the  upshot  of  the 
matter  was  that  Camille  Borghese  was  created  Governor  of  Piedmont. 

*  Madame  Junot,  Memoirs,  ii.  506. 


NEW    FEUDALISM  319 

"  Prince  Borghese  had  no  qualities,  either  physical  or  moral,  likely  to  please 
his  wife.  Even  when  he  tried  to  do  so,  he  only  succeeded  in  making  himself 
ridiculous.  One  evening,  at  a  ball  at  Murat's  house,  he  presented  himself 
dressed  as  a  Tyrolean  girl,  with  his  beard  projecting  below  his  mask  ;  and  he 
went  about,  thus  arrayed,  kissing  the  ladies  one  after  another."  * 

That  there  was  pride  in  Napoleon,  in  thus  endeavouring  to  found  a  dynasty 
of  princes,  is  likely  enough.  The  reason  he  gave  afterwards  is,  however,  more 
near  the  truth.  He  felt  himself  a  new  man,  isolated,  in  Europe,  and  was  con- 
scious that  the  princely  and  noble  families  despised  him  as  a  parvenu.  He 
hoped,  by  giving  titles  to  those  connected  with  him  by  blood  or  interest,  to 
create  a  new  royal  dynasty  and  a  new  aristocracy,  which  might  by  its  power,  its 
abilities,  and  its  character,  do  more  than  rival  that  which  was  mediaeval  and  ex- 
hausted, and  crumbling  away.  And  who  can  deny  that,  beside  such  creatures 
as  filled  the  thrones  of  Spain,  Portugal,  Naples,  Parma — even  beside  the 
German  Princes  of  Bavaria,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Hesse — his  marshals  shone  out 
as  planets,  full  of  manhood,  generosity,  and  public  spirit  ? 

The  Jacobins  and  old  Revolutionists  who  had  survived  that  process  by  which 
Revolution,  like  Saturn,  devours  its  own  children,  grumbled  in  their  garrets  and 
cellars.  Lucien  Bonaparte,  out  of  favour,  and  soured,  protested  the  purity  of 
his  democratic  principles.  The  ancient  noblesse  of  the  Faubourg  S.  Germain 
sneered  ;  but  this  new  aristocracy  had  the  money,  favour,  influence,  and  patron- 
age. The  parvenus  could  afford  to  laugh.  The  royal  and  imperial  houses 
reigning  in  Europe  writhed  ;  and  yet,  beaten-  and  brought  to  the  dust,  were 
forced  to  give  their  blood  to  mingle  with  that  of  the  Corsican  adventurer  and 
his  followers.  ,,^ 

There  lurked  in  the  heart  of  Napoleon  a  feverish  craving  to  be  doing  some-  \ 
thing  more  than  had  been  done,  to  exalt  himself  to  a  stage  higher  than  he  had 
already  reached,  and  this  was  never  allayed.     Partly  in  jest,  but  mainly  in 
earnest,  he  said  : — 

"  I  came  into  the  world  too  late.  There  is  nothing  more  to  be  done  that  is 
truly  grand.  I  admit  that  my  career  has  been  fine,  that  I  have  paved  for 
myself  a  royal  road  ;  but  consider  the  difference  between  now  and  antiquity ! 
Alexander,  after  having  conquered  Asia,  announced  himself  to  be  the  son  of 
Jupiter,  and  all  the  Orient  believed  him,  except  Aristotle  and  a  few  pedants  of 
Athens.  But  if  I  were  to  proclaim  myself  the  son  of  the  Eternal  Father,  and 
were  to  proceed  to  give  Him  thanks  in  solemn  state,  there  would  not  be  a 
single  fishwife  who  would  not  hiss  me  on  my  way.  People  are  now  too 
enlightened.     There  is  no  great  thing  more  to  be  done." 

*  SiLVAGNi,  Op.  cif.,  iii.  c.  41. 


XXXVII 

JENA 

(1806) 

Prussia  had  maintained  neutrality  throughout  the  conflicts  with  Austria, 
-*-  and  Napoleon  had  played  on  her  covetousness  and  her  fears  ;  but  the  time 
had  now  come  when,  Austria  being  humbled,  it  was  his  intention  to  force 
Prussia  to  her  knees. 

He  had  already  violated  her  territory  with  impunity.  ^  He  now  insisted  on 
Prussia  entering  into  the  Prohibitionary  League,  which  was  to  inaugurate  the 
continental  blockade  of  English  mechandise.  She  was  required  to  renounce 
the  Margravate  of  Bayreuth,  to  recognise  all  the  changes  that  had  been  effected 
in  Italy,  and  to  engage  to  close  the  mouths  of  the  Elbe  and  Weser  against 
English  commerce — a  clause  which  practically  involved  war  with  England. 

The  position  of  Prussia  was  embarrassing.  A  fortnight  before  the  capitula- 
tion of  Ulm,  she  had  signed  a  convention  with  England,  Russia,  and  Austria, 
engaging  herself  to  mediate  between  France  and  the  Allies ;  and  in  the  event 
of  Napoleon  rejecting  her  offers,  to  join  the  Coalition.  But  the  aspect  of 
affairs  was  completely  altered  by  the  result  of  the  battle ;  and  Prussia  was 
unable  to  refuse  the  offer  made  by  Napoleon,  which  was  tantamount  to  a 
command,  to  surrender  Anspach  and  Neufchatel,  and  to  annex  Hanover. 

By  this  skilful  manoeuvre,  Prussia  was  forced  into  hostility  with  England — 
a  position  she  did  not  relish,  but  could  not  avoid.  To  accept  Hanover  at  a 
moment  when  she  was  expecting  subsidies  from  England  was,  as  Fox  after- 
wards described  her  conduct,  "the  union  of  everything  contemptible  in 
cowardice  with  everything  that  was  odious  in  rapacity." 

The  answer  of  England  was  the  prompt  seizure  of  five  hundred  merchant 
vessels  sailing  under  the  Prussian  flag. 

Pitt  was  dead,  and  was  succeeded  by  Fox,  on  whom  Napoleon  had  exer- 
cised much  personal  influence.  He  believed,  now  that  Fox  was  at  the  head  of 
the  Government  in  England,  he  would  be  equally  prone  to  being  cajoled.  It 
was  Napoleon's  great  desire  to  detach  England  from  the  Northern  Coalition,  so 
that  he  might  crush  Prussia  and  humble  Russia  separately ;  after  which  he 
would  have  a  clear  field  for  trying  conclusions  with  Great  Britain. 

He  accordingly  opened  negotiations  with  Fox,  with  the  avowed  object 
of  peace.     The   initiation    of  the   diplomatic    correspondence    began    with   a 

320 


JENA  321 

pretended  plot  to  assassinate  the  Emperor,  that  had  been  got  up  by  Fouche  for 
the  purpose.  Ah  agent  prqvocateur  of  Fouche  had  proposed  to  Fox  to  murder 
Napoleon.  Fox,  believing  this  to  be  a  genuine  conspiracy,  sent  information  of 
it  to  Talleyrand,  and  this  led  to  a  complimentary  exchange  of  letters,  that 
opened  up  the  way  to  a  correspondence  relative  to  the  basis  of  a  treaty.  Lord 
Yarmouth  was  sent  over  to  France  as  English,  plenipotentiary  :  the  discussion 
was  protracted  ;  Lord  Yarmouth  was  replaced  by  Lord  Lauderdale,  but  the 
correspondence  led  to  no  results  so.  far  as  England  was  concerned,  as  Bona- 
parte made  it  a  sine  q^a  non  tha.t  the  alliance  with  Russia  should  be  abandoned. 
Napoleon  having  already  granted  Hanover  to  Prussia,  proposed  now  to  take  it 
away  and  give  it  back  to  England,  and  hinted  that  the  old  free  commercial 
Republics — Hamburg,  Liibeck,  Bremen — over  which  he  had  not  even  the 
questionable  right  of  conquest,  should  be  handed  over  to  England  like  dead 
stock,  or  bales  of  goods. 

Such  proposals  ought  to   have  been   met  by  an   indignant  rebuke  and  a 
cessation  of  conferences  ;  they  proved,  as  Spencer  Perceval  afterwards  declared 


Signature  at  thp  Opening  of  the  Campaign  of  1806. 

in  the  House  of  Commons,  that  no  negotiations  with  the  Emperor  could  be 
entered  into  without  contamination  ;  but  Fox,  deceived  by  his  admiration  for 
Napoleon,  and  blind  to  his  duplicity,  persevered  in  the  path  he  had  chosen. 

As  Bourrienne  said  :  "  Bonaparte  might  have  been  induced,  from  the  high 
esteem  he  felt  for  Fox,  to  make  concessions  from  which  he  would  before  have 
recoiled.  But  there  were  two  obstacles,  I  may  say  insurmountable  ones.  The 
first  was  the  conviction,  on  the  part  of  England,  that  any  peace  which  might 
be  made  would  be  only  a  truce,  and  that  Bonaparte  would  never  relinquish 
seriously  his  desire  of  universal  dominion.  Moreover,  it  was  believed  that 
Napoleon  had  formed  the  design  of  invading  England.  Had  he  been  able  to 
do  so,  it  would  have  been  less  with  the  view  of  striking  a  blow  at  her  commerce 
and  destroying  her  maritime  power,  than  of  annihilating  the  liberty  of  the 
Press,  which  he  had  extinguished  in  his  own  dominions.  The  spectacle  of  a 
free  people,  separated  by  only  six  leagues  of  sea,  was,  according  to  him,  a 
seductive  example  to  the  French,  especially  to  those  among  them  who  bent 
unwillingly  under  his  yoke."  ' 

In  the  meanwhile,  Napoleon  had  resolved  on  the  formation  of  a  powerful 
Confederacy  in  Germany,  in  the  interests  of  France  against  Prussia  and 
Austria.  The  scheme  was  based  on  the  Rhein-Bund,  formed  in  1658,  when  a 
number  of  German  Imperial  Estates  united  with  Louis  XIV.,  to  open  the  way 
into    Germany   for   French    influence.      But    the    conditions    of   the   present 


322        THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Confederacy  were  not  laid  down  with  such  consideration  as  before,  and 
Bonaparte  took  no  trouble  to  keep  up  the  delusion,  fostered  in  1658,  that  the 
members  of  the  Bund  had  obtained  great  advantages  from  France.  He  did  not 
trouble  himself  to  enter  into  correspondence  with,  and  consult  the  wishes  of 
any  of  the  Princes  concerned ;  he  simply  laid  down  his  scheme  for  a  union, 
and  insisted  on  their  submission.  The  publication  took  place  on  the  17th  July, 
1806.  Sixteen  Princes,  alarmed  and  overawed,  agreed  to  leave  the  German 
Imperial  Confederation,  which  they  were  no  longer  able  to  hold  together,  and 
bound  themselves  to  place  at  the  disposal  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  their 
Protector,  100,000  men  for  every  war  on  the  mainland  in  which  he  engaged. 
In  return,  a  number  of  small  Principalities  were  "  mediatised,"  and  these  terri- 
tories annexed  to  the  larger  subsisting  kingdoms  and  grand-duchies.  The 
Kings  of  Bavaria  and  Wiirtemberg,  the  Elector-Primate  Von  Dahlberg,  the 
Elector  of  Baden,  the  Grand-Duke  of  Berg  and  Cleves  (Murat),  the  Prince  of 
Hesse  Darmstadt,  and  ten  other  petty  Sovereign  Princes,  were  thenceforth  to 
be  detached  for  ever  from  the  German  Empire,  and  to  be  united  in  a  distinct 
Confederation,  to  be  guided  by  its  own  Diet,  and  to  be  under  the  immediate 
influence  of  Napoleon.  All  these  German  States  were  to  be  bound  to  one 
another  and  to  France  by  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive. 

The  imitation  of  Charlemagne  had  advanced  a  stage.  Bonaparte  had  now 
under  his  control  the  whole  of  the  West  of  Europe.  As  emperor  and  king,  he 
was  absolute  master  of  France  and  Italy ;  as  mediator,  he  was  master  of 
Switzerland ;  as  protector,  he  held  in  his  grasp  a  considerable  portion  of 
Germany ;  Naples  and  Holland  he  governed  through  his  two  brothers ;  Spain 
had  been  reduced  to  passive  and  abject  submission,  and  had  already  been 
engaged  by  him  to  subjugate  Portugal. 

The  formation  of  the  Rhein-Bund  greatly  alarmed  Prussia,  and  when  she 
learned  that  Napoleon,  after  having  given  her  Hanover,  had  offered  its  restora- 
tion to  England,  and  even  the  annexation  of  the  Hanseatic  Towns,  exaspera- 
tion became  intense. 

In  the  degradation  of  Germany,  nothing  so  irritated  and  offended  the 
national  spirit,  now  only  beginning  to  wake  up,  as  the  formation  of  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Berg  and  Cleves,  and  the  nomination  to  it  of  that  mountebank, 
Murat,  who  spent  27,000  francs  in  four  months,  over  his  feathers,*  and  who 
with  his  ape-like  affectations  was  repugnant  to  the  grave  German  taste. 

On  August  6th,  the  Emperor  Francis  resigned  the  Imperial  Crown  of 
Germany,  and  declared  that  the  ancient  Imperial  Confederation  was  at  an 
end.  The  malicious  delight  of  all  the  friends  of  France  in  the  Fatherland  was 
extraordinary,  but  the  vast  majority  of  the  nation  remained  mute  and  cold. 
Wherever  a  token  of  patriotic  feeling  manifested  itself,  in  a  cry  of  pain,  or 
indignation.  Napoleon  took  measures  to  silence  it.  None  were  allowed  to  tell 
the  Germans  that  they  had  once  been  a  great  people,  and  that  they  might  be  so 
again,  if  they  would  be  true  to  themselves  and  seek  regeneration  in  the  practice 
of  the  old  German  virtues. 

*  Madame  Junot,  Memoirs,  iii.  23. 


/  JENA  ..  323 

/  Among  the  patriotic  writers  of  this  time  who  exercised  enormous  influence 
in  rousing  the  national  feelings,  were  Gentz  and  Arndt.  The  former  was  a 
hireling,  and  a  man  without  a  character,  but  he  was  able  to  write,  and  he  did 
so,  in  reproof  of  the  degeneracy  of  his  age.  Arndt  was  a  man  of  superior 
type.  During  the  war  of  1805,  he  published  the  first  part  of  his  Spirit  of  the 
TimeSy  in  which,  in  vehenient  words,  he  appealed  to  the  German  conscience. 
"A  man,"  wrote  he,  "is  rarely  so  noble  that  he  can  endure  foreign  bondage 
and  contempt  without  becoming  bad — a  nation  can  never  do  so."  An 
anonymous  pamphlet  appeared  at  Anspach,  entitled  Germany  in  its  Deepest 
Humiliation^  and  it  exhorted  the  Germans  to  self-reproach  over  the  degenera- 
tion of  the  nation  under  French  despotism.  Palm  was  a  bookseller  of 
Niirnberg,  a  free  town,  recently  ceded  to  Bavaria,  and  one  over  which  France 
had  no  legitimate  authority,  though,  at  the  time,  it  was  momentarily  occupied 
by  French  troops.  Palm  had,  like  all  his  brethren  in  the  trade,  committed  the 
crime,  not  of  publishing,  but  of  selling,  Germany  in  its  Deepest  Humiliation, 
Napoleon  was  unable  to  answer  the  tract  otherwise  than  by  violent  means. 
And  as  in  his  letters  to  Joseph  he  recommended  cold  lead  as  an  infallible 
means  of  calming  patriotic  zeal  in  the  Neapolitans,  he  supposed  that  the  same 
dose  would  suit  the  German  constitution. 

Palm  was  arrested,  and  condemned  to  be  shot,  along  with  three  other  book- 
.  sellers,  who  happily  succeeded  in  effecting  their  escape.  The  sentence  was 
V^xecuted  on  Palm. 

The   murder  of   this   unfortunate    man   created    the   liveliest   indignation 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Germany,  and  was  peculiarly  calculated 
;o  rouse  the  German  mind,  so  given  to  literature,  and  which  considered  the 
iberty  of  the  press  essential  to  its  own  intellectual  life. 

Napoleon  had  not  intended  that  Prussia  should  have  heard  of  the  offer 
of  Hanover  and  the  Hanse  Towns  made  by  him  to  Great  Britain ;  but  the 
Prussian  ambassador,  Lucchesini,  got  word  of  it,  and  communicated  the 
proposed  traffic  to  the  King. 

Napoleon  had  his  spies  in  the  Berlin  Court,  and  they  at  once  informed  him 
that  his  treachery  had  been  reported.  He  hastened  to  give  a  flat  denial  to  it. 
Not  only  did  he  order  Laforest,  the  French  ambassador,  to  deny  the  existence 
of  such  a  negotiation,  but  he  was  bidden  swear  to  the  King  of  Prussia  that  the 
only  reason  why  peace  had  not  been  concluded  with  England  was  because 
he  was  resolute  not  to  concede  Hanover  to  England.  He  moreover  wrote  to 
Talleyrand  (2nd  August),  "  Let  Laforest  be  convinced  that  this  is  so,"  in  the 
hopes  that  the  French  ambassador  might  be  better  able  thereby  to  deceive 
the  King.  At  the  same  time  Laforest  was  instructed  to  blacken  the  character 
of  Lucchesini,  and  do  all  in  his  power  to  make  him  lose  credit  with  the  Prussian 
Cabinet — "  This  miserable,  imbecile  pantaloon,  this  false  and  base  Lucchesini, 
with  his  ridiculous  information  !"  (8th  August). 

But  Prussia  was  no  longer  to  be  hoodwinked.  The  spirit  of  the  people 
was  roused,  and  the  alliance  with  Russia  was  drawn  tighter.  The  formation 
of  the  Rhenish  Confederacy  caused  real  alarm  ;  and  the  exclusion  of  English 


324        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

goods,  and  the  stopping  of  all  colonial  produce  from  '  entering  the  ports, 
became  irksome  to  the  people,  interfering  with  the  comforts  and  necessities 
of  every  householder.  Moreover,  all  confidence  in  the  sincerity  of  Napoleon 
in- making  alliances  was  at  an  end."  Duplicity  was  a  part  of  his  policy.  "  He 
dealt  with,  peoples, -cities,  provinces,  nations^  in  the  most  arbitrary  manner, 
t^'a'risferring-'^them  from  one  ruler  to  another,  as  suited  his  momentary 'interest, 
and  without  consulting  the  interests  and  wishes  of  the  people  -themselves'. 
He  had  offered  to  give  away  the  Harise  Towns.  He  had  deceived  England 
"by  proniisirig  not  to  require  Sicily  for  the  kingdom  of  Naples ;  he  had  offered 
to  detach  the  Balearic  Islands  from  his  ally  Spain;  he  deceived  Holland,  for 
which  he  had  procured  the  restoration  of  her  colonies,  the  Cape  and  Ceylon, 
and  then  had  thrown  them  over  as  indifferent.  He  had  given  Venice  to 
Austria,  then  taken  it  away  again.  At  one  moment  he  had  been  zealous  for 
the  integrity  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  then  trafficked  with  portions  of  it,  on 
which  not  a  French  sbldier  had  set  foot. 

In  opposition  to  the  Confederacy  of  the  Rhine,  Prussia  endeavoured  to 
negotiate  a  Nord-Bund,  but  at  once  encountered  difficulties  raised  by  Napoleon, 
who  menaced  Saxony  and  Hesse  in  the  event  of  their  entering  into  this 
alliance ;  and  thus  it  became  obvious  to  all  clear  heads  in  Prussia  that,  if 
they  desired  to  maintain  national  independence,  this  must  be  done  by  the 
sword.  The  King  was  wavering  in  his  opinion,  and  afraid  of  war,  at  the  time 
when  Napoleon  was  massing  troops  on  the  frontiers,  and  pouring  military 
munitions  into  the  depots  behind  them. 

The  Prussian  patriots  endeavoured  to  stir  the  King  to  energy,  and  detach 
him  from  his  old  advisers.  Stein  drew  out  a  plan  of  reform  ;  and  in  Sep- 
tember, 1806,  the  war  party  entreated  Frederick  William  III.  to  dismiss  the 
ministers  under  whom  Prussia  had  endured  such  degradation.  But  the  King 
refused,  and  all  remained  on  the  old  footing ;  whilst  Napoleon  pushed  on  his 
preparations  on  such  a  scale,  that  it  seemed  as  if  he  purposed  something  more 
than  the  crushing  of  Prussia. 

The  Moniteur  was  instructed  to  issue  insulting  articles  on  Prussia,  and  to 
sneer  at  her  as  a  secondary  power. 

By  the  Treaty  of  Presburg,  all  the  French  corps  ought  to  have  evacuated 
Germany.  Instead  of  this,  a  part  of  the  victorious  army,  which  had  fought  at 
Austerlitz  had  been  left  beyond  the  Rhine,  to  preside  over  the  new  Con- 
federacy, or  to  live  at  free  quarters  in  the  rich  Hanse  Towns.  And  now 
Napoleon  was  concentrating  his  forces  upon  the  frontier. 

At  the  beginning  of  September  he  collected  his  great  captains  around  him 
in  Paris — Soult,  Augereau,  and  Bernadotte,  who  had  been  serving  in  Germany, 
and  Murat,  who  had  been  residing  in  his  Grand  Duchy  of  Berg — and  consulted 
with  them  as  to  the  best  means  of  opening  and  conducting  a  campaign  against 
Prussia,  so  as  to  render  it  rapid  and  decisive,  like  his  last  campaign  against 
Austria. 

At  last  the  Prussian  Ministry  prepared  an  ultimatum,  requiring  that  the 
French  troops  should  be  withdrawn,  in  accordance  with  the  Treaty  of  Presburg, 


THE     EMPEROR. 
By  Meissonier. 


JENA  :        '        327 

that  the  Northern  Confederacy  should  be  acknowledged,  and  that  various 
points  of  contention  between  Prussia  and  France  should  be  submitted  to 
arbitration. 

Napoleon  answered  in  the  haughtiest  tone  of  defiance,  that  for  Prussia  to 
provoke  the  enmity  of  France  was  as  senseless  as  to  pretend  to  withstand  the 
waves  of  the  ocean.  On  the  25th  September,  before  receiving  his  ultimatum, 
he  had  already  left  Paris,  and  was  on  the  Rhine,  prepared  to  commence  opera- 
tions. In  August  the  troops  of  the  Rhein-Bund  had  occupied  the  Thuringian 
frontier,  and  the  French  host  had  been  got  ready  to  march.  He  was  in 
Bamberg  when,  on  the  6th  October,  he  received  the  Prussian  ultimatum,  and 
war  was  declared  on  the  8th. 

Napoleon  brought  into  the  field  a  force  numerically  superior  to  the  Prussian 
army.  His  French  veterans  were  in  admirable  discipline.  He  was  the  first 
general  of  the  age,  and  under  him  were  commanders  of  first-rate  abilities.  As 
he  advanced,  he  had  on  his  flanks  none  but  friendly  States ;  in  his  rear  was  an 
immense  force  in  disciplined  troops.  On  the  other  hand,  Prussia  was  unpre- 
pared ;  it  had  raw  levies,  who  had  not  smelt  powder  ;  old  generals,  brought  up 
under  Frederick  the  Great,  and  wholly  unacquainted  with  the  tactics  of  war  as 
revolutionised  by  Napoleon.  No  ally  had  been  gained  save  half-hearted 
Saxony,  which  would  have  stood  aloof,  and  allowed  Prussia  to  be  destroyed,  as 
in  the  preceding  autumn  Prussia  had  stood  aloof  when  Austria  was  at  a  death- 
grapple  with  the  invader,  had  not  Prince  Hohenlohe  been  sent  into  the  country 
at  the  head  of  a  division  of  the  Prussian  army.  No  sufficiency  of  stores  had 
been  collected,  no  plan  of  campaign  formed,  no  provision  for  rallying-places 
made  in  case  of  disaster ;  and,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  nothing  was  done  to 
occupy  the  ravines  of  the  Thuringian  mountains,  by  means  of  which,  in 
separate  columns,  the  French  army  must  enter  Saxe  Weimar.  Nothing  had 
been  done  to  arm  and  provision  the  fortresses  on  the  Elbe,  no  provision  made 
for  recruiting  the  army  with  fresh  supplies  of  men.  In  a  word,  the  only  chance 
for  Prussia  lay  in  a  pitched  battle  and  decisive  success.  In  the  event  of  a 
reverse,  disaster  of  the  most  overwhelming  nature  was  inevitable. 

The  battles  of  Auerstadt  and  of  Jena,  that  ensued,  resulted  as  might  have 
been  anticipated.  To  make  their  situation  more  hopeless,  the  Prussians 
allowed  themselves  to  be  caught  whilst  executing  an  intricate  counter-march ; 
and,  to  still  further  aggravate  the  evil,  divided  their  forces  when  they  ought  to 
have  been  concentrated,  and  allowed  the  enemy  to  occupy  the  position  they 
ought  never  to  have  left  unguarded.  The  stress  of  the  battle  was  at  Auerstadt, 
where  Davoust  was  opposed  to  the  centre  and  right  wing  of  the  Prussians ; 
whereas  at  Jena  Napoleon  fought  the  left  wing  only,  under  Prince  Hohenlohe. 
But,  according  to  his  invariable  usage,  he  claimed  all  the  merit  to  himself, 
reported  the  battle  as  that  of  Jena,  and  gave  but  a  grudging  acknowledgment 
to  the  great  achievement  of  Davoust  at  Auerstadt.  In  his  bulletins  he  did  his 
utmost  to  disguise  the  fact  that  he  had  exposed  Davoust,  with  an  isolated 
corps,  to  extreme  peril.  This  marshal  had  to  contend  against  the  greater 
portion  of  the  Prussian  army,  whereas  the  Emperor  crushed  only  the  weakest 


328        THE    LIFE   OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

portion,  with  double  the  number  of  men  at  his  disposal.  Napoleon  inverted 
thq  parts  in  his  bulletins :  the  brave  Davoust  with  30,000  defeated  the  King 
with  60,000 ;  Napoleon  pretended  that  he  himself  had  80,000  men  opposed  to 
him, Whereas  there  were  but  40,000.  He  made  of  the 'battle  of  Auerstadt  a 
secondary  episode  of  the  battle  of  Jena,  whereas  it  was  in  fact  the  capital  and 
decisive  event.-  ,  /   ^      >  •  '  . 

It  was  during  the  battle  that  an  incident  occurred,  immortalised  by  the 
brush  of  Horace  Vernet.  The  Guards  had  not  been  brought  into  action,  and 
were  impatient.  Napoleon  had  s^en  his  wings  menaced  by  the  cavalry  of 
Bliicher,  and  was  galloping,  forward  to  order  the  front  rows  to  form  into 
squares.  As  he  passed  through  the  Guards  a  voice  called  '*  En  avantj'/ 
"Who  said -'that?*'  asked  tHe  Emperor,  abruptly  turning  and  reining  in  his 
horse.  '"Let  him  -who  spoke  learn  to  wait  till  he  has  won  thirty  battles 
before  giving  his  advice."  The  story  has  -  probaibly  been  niagnified  out  of  a 
small  incident.        '  -      .  '  ■  ■    ^  .- 

Immediately  after  the  battle,  which  had  ended  in  the  utter  route  and  de^ 
tnoralisation  of  thejenem^,  Napoleon -expanded  his  army  like  a  Jan,  .and: :sent 
it'  throughout  the- kingdom  of  Prussia, "to  sweep  away  the  flying  remnants  ;of 
the  "enemy,  and  to  take  the  fortified  towns.  The.  King  of  Prusteia  fled  over  the 
frontier,  and  left  to  his  generals  to  rally  the  'dispersed  troaps.  Saicoriy  hastened 
toconclude  peace  with  the  conqueror.  '  .  •  ' 

*.  On  the! 5th  October,  Napoleon  imposed  a coiitribution  of  1 59,000,000  francs 
on  all  the  Prussian  provinces  this  side  of  the  Vistula,  and  ordered  tlie  confisca^ 
tion  of  all  English  goods  found  in  the  northern  towns.  Eight  days  after  the 
battle,  he  detached  the  PrUssiaii  provinces  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Elbe/ and 
incorporated  them  in  the  French  empire,  together  with  Ihe  principalities  of  the 
Hessian  Electoral  House  and  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  brother-in-law  of  the 
■King.  On  the  27th  Octobery  Napoleon  entered  Berlin,  where  he  showed  the 
deep-rooted  contempt  and  hatred  he  bore  for  all  that  was  Prussian.  He  spared 
^heBerlinese  no  humiliation.  V He  had  the  figure  of  Victory  removed  from  the 
Brandenburg  gate ;  he  carried  off  the  sword  of  Frederick  the  Great  from  his 
tt)mb,  on  which  it  had  lain,  and  sent  it  to- the  Irtvalides  at  Paris.  He  drove 
the  gallant  regiment  of  Gensdarmes  along' "  Uhder  the  Linden"  in  rags;  like  a 
herd  of  cattle,  and  he  refused  to  allow  the  body  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick, 
who  had  been  opposed  to"  hina  ^n  tHe  field  Of  Auerstadt^  to  be  taken  to 'the 
ancestral  mausoleum.  On-  the  field  of  Rossbach,  he  destroyed  a  column 
erected  to  ~  commeniorate  the  Well-known  ^  victory  of  the  Prussians  over  the 
iP'rench,  and  sent  it  as  a  trophy  to  Paris.  On  entering  Berlin,  the  magistrates 
presented  him  with  the  keys  of  the  city  ;  they"  were  conducted  by  Prince 
Hatzfeld,  to  whorn  the  King  of  Prussia  had  entrusted  the  civil  government. 
-Napoleon  received  them  with  rudeness.  ,He  ordei'ed  the  Prince  6ut  of  Jiis 
presence.  "  Don't  you  present  yourself  before  me,"  he  said,  "I  do  not  require 
^your  services ;  Vfetire,  go  to  your  own  property."  Then  he  sharply  catechised 
Count,  Neale  Relative  to  a  lettet-  by  his  daughter,  which  had  been  intercepted, 
and  which   qdntained    patriotic   sentiments.     "  The   good    people,  of  Berlin,^' 


^# 


o     « 


a     <; 


:  JENA  ;  :  331 

exclaimed  he,  "  suffer  through  the  war  that  those  have  brought  on  them  who 
have  elected  to  run  away.  I  intend  to  reduce  the  nobility  of  the  Court  to 
such  a  low  state  that  they  will  be  forced  to  go  about  begging  their  bread."  * 

Next  day,  he  proceeded  to  put  this  menace  in  execution,  by  laying  his  hand 
on  the  same  Prince  Hatzfeld.  He  had  intercepted  a  letter  of  his,  reporting  to 
the  King,  his  master,  the  entry  of  the  French  into  the  capital.  Napoleon  chose 
this  as  an  occasion  for  charging  him  with  being  a  spy,  and  ordered  him  to 
instant  execution.  The  proceeding  was  such  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  civilised 
peoples,  that  Berthier,  Duroc,  and  Rapp  interfered,  but  found  Napoleon  in- 
flexible in  his  resolution.  The  generals  were  determined  not  to  allow  this 
execution  to  take  place ;  they  concealed  the  Prince,  and  between  them  con- 
trived a  little  scene,  in  which  the  Princess  and  her  children  were  to  plead  with 
the  conqueror  for  the  life  of  husband  and  father.  By  this  time,  Napoleon  had 
been  convinced  that  it  would  be  advisable  to  yield,  and  he  pardoned  Prince 
Hatzfeld.  This  has  furnished  painters  with  a  subject  which  is  entitled,  "  The 
Clemency  of  Napoleon." 

But  perhaps  the  worst  incident  of  this  period  is  the  inditing  of  virulent  and. 
scurrilous  charges  against  Queen  Louise,  the  wife  of  King  Frederick  William. 
It  was  not  the  way  with  Bonaparte  to  spare  women,  any  more  than  men,  who 
opposed  him.  He  had  written  concerning  the  Queen  of  Naples  :  "  Fling  from 
her  throne  this  criminal  woman,  who,  with  such  shamelessness,  has  violated  all 
that  is  regarded  as  sacred  among  men."  Now  he  launched  forth  into  invective 
against  Queen  Louise,  who  had  used  her  best  endeavour  to  stir  the  sluggish 
mind  of  her  husband  to  oppose  French  aggression.  He  found  that  she  was 
looked  up  to  and  followed  by  the  generous  minds  in  the  nation ;  she  was  the 
soul  of  the  national  party.  It  was  therefore  his  object  to  destroy  her  influence 
and  reputation,  and  to  do  this,  he  devoted  as  much  energy  to  the  dirty  work  as 
though  he  was  endeavouring  to  break  the  centre  of  an  opposing  army.  After 
having  described  her  as  a  person  "  sufficiently  pretty,  but  with  little  wit,"  he 
endeavoured  to  stir  minds  up  against  her,  as  the  sole  author  of  this  calamitous 
war.  "  She  who  had  been  accustomed  to  devote  herself  to  the  grave  occupa- 
tions of  the  toilette,"  had  forced  herself  into  political  life,  "  meddled  with  aff"airs 
of  State,  influenced  the  King,  scattered  everywhere  the  fire  which  consumes  her 
heart."  And  the  reason  for  this  was  that  she  was  fascinated  by  the  charms 
of  the  young  Emperor  of  Russia.  There  was  an  engraving  of  a  picture  by 
Dahling,  that  represented  the  parting  of  the  Emperor  and  the  King  at  the 
coffin  of  Frederick  the  Great,  in  the  presence  of  Louise.  Napoleon,  in  his 
bulletin  (17th),  describes  this  : — 

"  On  one  side  is  the  good-looking  Emperor  of  Russia,  near  him  the  Queen 
on  the  other  side,  the  King,  who  places  his  hand  on  the  tomb  of  the  Great 
Frederick.  The  Queen,  draped  in  a  shawl,  something  like  the  London  pictures 
of  Lady  Hamilton,  places  her  hand  on  her  heart,  and  seems  to  be  ogling 
the  Emperor  of  Russia.  The  shade  of  Frederick  would  be  indignant  at 
such   a  scandalous  scene." 

*  All  this  insolence  he  relates  in  his  21st  bulletin. 


332        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Afraid  lest  Jthis  allusion  should  not  be  fully  understood,  Napoleon  returned 
to  it  in  his  next  bulleitin.        :  :      :      :;^    i     .         :  .  '  : 

"All  the  Prussians  attribute  the  misfortunes  of  their  country  to  the  visit  of 
the  Emperor  Alexander.  The  change  which,  from  that  moment,  took  place  in 
the  mind  of  the  Queen,  who  was  formerly  a  timid  and  modest  woman,  and 
then  became  turbulent  and  warlil<e,  was  a  sudden  revolution.  .  All  people 
admit  that  the  Qu§en  is  |;he  author  pf  the  misfortpnes  which  the  Prussiar> 
nation  en(4ures.^  One  hears  on  all  sides  how  she  turned  about  after  that  fatal 
interview  withr  the  Emperor  Alexander.  .  .  .  We  have Vaptually  found  the 
portrait  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia  in  the  apartment  of  the  Queen  at  Potsdam  J 
and  this  portrait  he  gave  her."  ^      .  .    i 

.     ■•■         ,;::;..,:..;       "     .    ,  ^:  "^     '  ^     ■.  -  '  "  :  ::  "^ 

On  theses  offensive  bulletins  of  Napoleon,  Lanfrey  justly  remarks;  "The. 
gaps  in  the  moral. organisation  of  Napoleon,  as  here  instanced,  are  equivalent 
to  a  lack  of.  intelligence;  for  if  he  wounded  the\most  delicate  scruples  of  the| 
human  conscience,  the  cause  lay  in  his  own  heart.  He  was  vastly  in  error- in 
treatrng-  other  men*  as^  though  they  had  been  'divested,  of  all"  sentiments :of 
honour  and  morality,  as  he  was  himself  He  did  not' perceive  that  these  vil^ 
insinuations/directed  against  a  fugitive  and  disarmed  woman  by  a  man  who 
stood  at  the  Head  oFsoo^ooo  soldiers,  missed  their  mark,  and  were  calculated,  not 
only  "to  excite  the  disgust  of  all  elevated  souls,  but  even  to  revolt  the  most 
commonplace  ininds."*^  '   .  :  l.  :  :   .:    .:  .  .1 

This  brutality  to  Queen  Louise  has  been  excused  on  the  grounds  of  poli^ 
tical  necessity:  but  Bonaparte  was  by  a  nature  a  bully,  and  had  all  a  bully's 
meanness.      =  ,  .       •  ,-,  •  .   , 

On  a  smaller  scale,  he  had  shown  the  same  brutality,  the  same  lack  of 
delicate  feeling,  when  Junot  introduced  to  him  his  young  bride.  Then  he 
said  to  her,  "I  suppose  you  have  heard  of  the  harem  your  husband  kept- in 
Egypt?"  Mme.  Junot  tells  a  worse  story  than  that  of  his  treatment  of  her. 
But  he  behaved  to  the  ladies  of  his  Court,  and  even  the  wives  of  .his  personal, 
friends,. of  men  who  would,  and  did,  lay  down  their  lives  for  him,  with  as  little 
consideration  as  he  showed  to  Queen  Louise.  But  we  -must,  in  judging  him,^ 
deal  leniently,  in  remembering  that  in  his  youth  he  had  not  been  associated 
with  ladies ;  and  he.  looked  -  on  all  women  in  the  same  light  as  Corsican^ 
peasantesses,  and  petty  attorneys'  wives.  -  =  ■■  ^ 

Frqm  Berlin  Napoleon  issued  that  decree  which  was  to  carry  into  effect,; 
the  chimerical  scheme  on  which  he  had  set  his  heart,  since  he  had.  abandoned, 
the  prospect  of  an  invasion  of  England*  He  proposed  to  ruin  her,  by  closing 
all  ports  against  her  merchandise.  This  decree  was  issued  on  November  26th^ 
1806.  It  forbade  the  importation  of  English  wares,  and  ordered  the  con- 
fiscation of  all  such  as  were  already  in  the  country,  the  imprisonment  of  every 
English  subject,  and  the  confiscation  of  his  goods.  Napoleon  fondly  thought 
by  this  means  to  destroy  the  commercial  prosperity  of  England.  But  England 
was  able  to  hold  out  against  the  blow,  which  recoiled  on  the  trade  of  Germany.^ 
;  The  decree,  of  Napoleon  provoked  more  astonishment  on  the  Continent 
than  indignation,  and  men  began  to  doubt  whether  he.  were  not  drunk  with; 

.  *  Lanfrey,  iii.  501.  ,   • 


JENA 


333 


success,  and  blind  to  the  fact  that  this  continental  blockade  was  not  possible 
unless  every  avenue  of  trade  were  stopped ;  and  such  was  not  the  case,  so  long 
as  Austria  and  Russia  were  open  to  English  commerce,  and  officials  in  every 
port  ready  to  connive  at  smuggling ;  nay,  more,  with  those  at  the  head  of 
the  State  unwilling  to  have  the  blockade  enforced.  This  was  the  case  with 
Louis   Bonaparte,  King  of  Holland,  who  would  riot  execute  the  decree,  and 


"on  ne  passe  pas." 

'From  a  lithograph  by  Charlet. 


was  sharply  reprimanded  for  his  neglect  by  the  Emperor.  But  Napoleon 
himself  found  it  impossible  rigorously  to  maintain  it.  He  was  obliged  to  sign 
numerous  permits,  to  allow  of.  the  introduction  of  English  goods  that  were 
essentially  necessary  to  the  army.  An  instance  in  point  was  when  he  imposed 
on  Hamburg  a  contribution  for  the  Grand  Army  of  50,000  cloaks,  16,000  coats, 
and  200,000  boots.  There  were  no  manufacturers  of  cloth  in  Hamburg,  nor 
was  there  leather;  consequently  the  requisite  cloth  and  leather  had  to  be 
purchased  in  London,  and  introduced  from  England."^  Officials  grew  rich  by 
taking  bribes  to  allow  prohibited  goods  to  pass.     In  181 1,  when  Murat  was 

^   BOURRIENNE,  H.  385. 


334        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

King  of  Naples,  and  the  continental  system  was  applied  there,  the  troops 
round  his  extensive  line  of  sea-coast  carried  on  an  active  trade  with  Sicilian 
and  English  smugglers.  To  such  an  extent  was  this  carried,  that  the  officers 
embarked  in  large  commercial  operations,  going  shares  with  the  custom-house. 
There  was  a  Count  on  Murat's  staff,  very  noble,  but  very  poor.  After  making 
several  vain  attempts  to  set  him  up  in  the  world,  the  King  told  him  one  day 
he  would  give  him  the  command  of  all  the  troops  round  the  Gulf  of  Salerno  ; 
adding  that  the  devil  was  in  it,  if  he  could  not  make  a  fortune  in  such  a 


THE   EMPEROR   IN    PRUSSIA. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


smuggling  district  in  a  couple  of  years.     The  Count  took  the  hint,  and  did 
make  a  fortune. 

As  Bourrienne  justly  observes,  the  continental  system  of  blockade  of 
English  goods  resolved  itself  into  nothing  more  nor  less  than  one  of  fraud  and 
pillage. 

"  At  Hamburg,  under  Davoust's  government,  a  poor  man  had  well-nigh 
been  shot  for  having  smuggled  a  loaf  of  sugar  for  the  use  of  his  family,  while 
at  the  same  moment  Napoleon  was  signing  a  licence  for  the  importation  of  a 
million  sugar-loaves.  Smuggling  on  a  small  scale  was  punished  with  deaths 
whilst  the  Government  carried  it  on  extensively." 


JENA  335 

But  not  only  was  its  execution  impossible ;  by  raising  the  cost  of  colonial 
produce,  brought  round  through  the  Baltic  ports  of  Russia,  and  through  Trieste, 
it  caused  privation  to  the  poor,  and  discomfort  to  the  rich,  and  served  to 
nurture  in  all  hearts  a  sense  of  resentment  against  the  man  who  imposed  this 
restraint  on  trade. 

Napoleon  required  the  civil  authorities  of  the  Prussian  provinces  to  take  an 
oath  of  fidelity  to  him — a  step  wholly  unprecedented,  and  one  that  clearly 
indicated  his  intention  of  annexing  Prussia  to  the  Empire.  In  North  Germany, 
the  National  cause  seemed  lost.  No  army,  nothing  remained  to  the  King  but 
that  portion  of  his  realm  which  was  beyond  the  Vistula.  The  principal 
generals  had  fallen  at  Jena,  or  afterwards  had  given  up  their  swords.  One  man 
alone  came  forward  with  schemes  of  regeneration — Baron  Stein — but  the  King 
refused  to  hear  him.  "You  are,"  wrote  he  on  the  4th  January,  1807,  "a  per- 
verse, stubborn^  stiffnecked,  and  disobedient  servant  of  the  State,  who,  relying 
on  his  talents,  instead  of  looking  to  the  good  of  the  State,  is  led  by  his  caprices, 
passions,  and  personal  vindictiveness."  Yet  Stein  was  the  man  through  whom 
Prussia  was  to  be  revived.  Another  there  was,  Blucher,  now  on  parole  at 
Bremen,  who  foresaw  that  the  valley  of  death  must  lead  to  a  resurrection,  and 
he  said  to  Bourrienne,  "You  may  depend  upon  it,  when  once  a  nation  is 
resolved  to  shake  off  a  humiliating  yoke,  it  will  succeed.  I  rely  confidently  on 
the  future,  because  I  foresee  that  fortune  will  not  ever  follow  your  Emperor. 
The  more  he  enslaves  the  nations,  the  more  terrible  will  be  the  reaction,  when 
they  break  their  chains." 


XXXVIII 
THE    CAMPAIGN    IN    POLAND 

(Winter  of  1806-7) 

NAPOLEON  stayed  long  enough  in  Berlin  to  permit  a  deputation  from 
the  French  Senate  to  arrive,  and  congratulate  him  on  his  successes.  It 
was  received  between  lines  of  grenadiers,  each  holding  a  standard  captured 
from  the  enemy. 

The  deputation  ventured  to  hint  to  the  conqueror  that  France  was  sighing 
for  peace,  and  that  some  uneasiness  was  felt  lest  he  should  carry  his  arms 
beyond  the  Oder.  The  Emperor  received  this  communication  with  a  very  bad 
grace. 

So  far  from  regarding  this  remonstrance.  Napoleon  at  once  prepared  for  a 
Polish  campaign.  He  prepared  for  it  in  a  characteristic  manner,  by  rousing  to 
fanaticism  the  national  feeling  of  the  Poles,  and  allowing  them  to  believe  that 
he  was  coming  to  be  their  liberator  from  the  powers  which  had  partitioned  their 
kingdom. 

The  old  hero  Kosciuszko  was  living  quietly  at  Fontainebleau.  As  his  name 
was  a  power  in  Poland,  a  manifesto  was  drawn  up,  addressed  to  his  country- 
men, exciting  them  to  rise  and  welcome  the  French  as  their  deliverers,  and  he 
was  requested  to  put  his  name  to  it.  But  Kosciuszko  had  seen  enough  of 
Bonaparte  to  be  sure  that  he  purposed  employing  the  Poles  as  a  catspaw  for 
his  own  interest  only,  and  he  refused  his  signature,  saying  that  he  would  not 
be  an  instrument  in  deceiving  his  countrymen  with  hopes  he  did  not  himself 
entertain.  In  spite  of  this  refusal.  Napoleon  ordered  the  proclamation  to  be 
printed  in  the  Moniteur,  with  Kosciuszko's  signature  attached. 

On  the  1st  of  November,  when  he  was  preparing  to  pour  his  Grand  Army 
into  Poland,  he  made  General  Dombrowski  issue  this  proclamation,  together 
with  other  addresses,  wherein  the  Polish  nation  was  told  that  Kosciuszko  was 
hastening  to  fight  with  them  for  the  liberation  of  their  country,  under  the 
protection  of  the  Emperor  of  the  French.  The  few  who  were  aware  of  the 
fraud  perpetrated  kept  the  secret.  The  Poles  were  worked  into  a  fever  of 
enthusiasm,  and  welcomed  the  advancing  French  columns  with  joy. 

All  Prussian  Poland  was  in  a  blaze ;  and  the  Russians,  who  had  advanced 
into  these  provinces  with  the  design  of  crossing  the  Vistula,  and  succouring  the 

336 


THE    CAMPAIGN    IN    POLAND  337 

King  of  Prussia,  found  themselves  surrounded  by  a  hostile  population,  that  was 
pouring  its  manhood  into  the  enemy's  camp.  So  many  volunteers  arrived  at 
headquarters,  that,  as  early  as  the  i6th  of  November,  Dombrowski  had  formed 
of  them  four  regiments. 

This  blind  enthusiasm  was  at  its  height  when  the  Emperor  arrived  at  Posen. 
He  received  deputations  and  addresses  from  the  credulous  patriots,  all  entreat- 
ing him  to  restore  to  their  country  its  ancient  independence. 

Some  of  the  nobles,  however,  held  back.  They  remembered  how  badly 
Napoleon  had  treated  the  Republics  of  Venice,  Batavia,  Switzerland  ;  and  they 
demanded  some  guarantee  that  he  would  give  them  what  they  desired  before 
compromising  themselves  with  Russia  and  Austria. 

Murat,  whose  ambition  was  to  become  King  of  Poland,  in  vain  solicited 
a  public  declaration  of  the  intentions  of  the  Emperor. 

Napoleon  wrote  to  Andreossy,  his  ambassador  at  Vienna,  to  calm  the  un- 
easiness there  felt  at  the  agitation,  which  had  spread  into  Austrian  Poland  : — 

"  If  the  Emperor,  feeling  the  difficulty  of  keeping  hold  on  Austrian  Poland 
in  the  midst  of  these  movements,  would  like  to  have,  as  an  indemnity  for  it,  a 
portion  of  Silesia,  Napoleon  will  be  ready  to  entertain  such  an  idea." 

The  object  of  this  insidious  proposition  was  to  produce  a  rupture  between 
Austria  and  the  Allies — Prussia,  England,  and  Russia.  But  the  Court  of  Vienna 
received  the  proposal  coldly. 

On  the  1 2th  December,  Napoleon  issued  one  of  those  singular  bulletins 
which  might  mean  much  or  little,  and  which  was  calculated  to  stimulate  hope, 
but  committed  him  to  nothing  : — 

"  The  love  of  country,  that  national  sentiment,  has  not  only  been  preserved 
in  the  heart  of  the  Polish  people,  but  it  has  been  strengthened  by  misfortune. 
Their  first  passion,  their  strongest  desire,  is  to  become  again  a  nation.  The 
richest  among  them  quit  their  chateaux,  to  come  and  demand,  with  loud  cries, 
the  re-establishment  of  the  kingdom,  and  to  offer  their  sons,  their  fortunes,  their 
influence.  This  spectacle  is  truly  touching.  Already  have  they  everywhere 
resumed  their  ancient  costume,  their  ancient  customs.  Will  the  throne  of 
Poland  be  re-established  ?  Will  this  great  nation  recover  its  existence  and  its 
independence?  From  the  bottom  of  the  grave  will  it  rise  again  to  a  new  life? 
God  alone,  who  holds  in  His  hands  the  issues  of  all  things,  is  the  arbiter  of  this 
grand  political  problem  ;  but  certainly  there  never  was  an  event  more  memor- 
able, and  more  deserving  of  interest." 

The  Emperor  entered  Warsaw  on  the  ist  January,  1807.  Most  of  the  private 
reports  which  had  been  received  gave  accounts  of  the  discouragement  of  the 
troops.  Food  was  scarce,  the  weather  bad,  the  condition  of  the  roads  intoler- 
able. The  French  were  uneasy  at  being  thrust  forward  in  mid-winter  towards 
the  snowy  plains  of  Russia.  The  artillery  could  hardly  be  dragged  through 
the  deep  mud.  Talleyrand  had  been  summoned  from  Paris  by  the  Emperor, 
and  his  carriage  stuck  fast.  "  Ah,  bah  !  "  said  a  soldier  on  seeing  him  deep  in 
mire,  "  why  does  he  come  with  his  diplomacy  to  such  a  devil  of  a  country  as 
this  ?  " 


I 


338        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  Emperor  issued  the  following  proclamation  to  the  soldiers  on  the 
anniversary  of  Austerlitz  : — 

"  Soldiers, — It  is  a  year,  this  very  hour,  since  you  were  on  the  field  of 
Austerlitz,  when  the  Prussian  battalions  fled  in  disorder,  or  surrendered  their 
arms.  Next  day  proposals  of  peace  were  talked  of,  but  were  deceptive.  No 
sooner  had  the  Russians  escaped  from  the  disasters  of  the  third  Coalition  than 
they  contrived  a  fourth.  But  the  ally  on  whom  they  founded  their  main  hope 
is  no  more.  His  capital,  his  fortresses,  his  magazines,  his  arsenals,  280  flags, 
and  700  field-pieces,  have  fallen  into  our  power.  The  Oder,  the  Wartha,  the 
wastes  of  Poland,  and  the  inclemency  of  the  season,  have  not  for  a  moment  re- 
tarded your  progress.  You  have  braved  all,  surmounted  all.  The  Russians 
have  in  vain  endeavoured  to  defend  the  capital  of  illustrious  Poland.  The 
French  eagle  hovers  over  the  Vistula.  .  .  .  Soldiers,  we  will  not  lay  down  our 
arms  until  a  general  peace  has  secured  the  power  of  our  allies,  and  restored  to 
us  our  colonies  and  our  freedom  of  trade.  .  .  .  Why  should  the  Russians  have 
the  right  to  oppose  destiny,  and  thwart  our  just  designs  ?  They  and  we  are 
still  the  soldiers  who  fought  at  Austerlitz." 

Bourrienne  gives  an  interesting  picture  of  the  manner  in  which  Napoleon 
dictated  his  proclamations,  and  of  the  effect  produced  by  them  : — 

"  When  Bonaparte  dictated  these — and  how  many  have  I  written  from  his 
dictation  !^ — he  was  for  the  moment  inspired,  and  he  evinced  all  the  excitement 
which  distinguishes  the  Italian  improvisors.  To  follow  him,  it  was  necessary  to 
write  with  inconceivable  rapidity.  When  I  have  read  over  to  him  what  he  has 
dictated,  I  have  often  known  him  to  smile  triumphantly  at  the  effect  which  he 
expected  some  particular  phrase  would  produce.  In  general,  his  proclamations 
turned  on  three  distinct  points — (i)  Praising  his  soldiers  for  what  they  had 
done ;  (2)  pointing  out  to  them  what  they  had  yet  to  do  ;  and  (3)  abusing  his 
enemies.  The  proclamation  to  which  I  have  just  now  alluded  was  circulated 
profusely  through  Germany,  and  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  the  effect  it  pro- 
duced on  the  whole  army.  The  corps  stationed  in  the  rear  burned  to  pass,  by 
forced  marches,  the  space  which  still  separated  them  from  headquarters ;  and 
those  who  were  near  the  Emperor  forgot  their  fatigues  and  privations  and 
were  only  anxious  to  encounter  the  enemy.  Frequently  they  could  not 
understand  what  Napoleon  said  in  these  proclamations  ;  but  no  matter  for 
that,  they  would  have  followed  him  cheerfully,  barefooted,  and  without  pro- 
visions. Such  was  the  enthusiasm,  or  rather  the  fanaticism,  which  Napoleon 
could  inspire  among  his  troops  when  he  thought  proper  to  rouse  them,  as  he 
termed  it."  * 

On  the  nth  December,  while  the  columns  of  the  Grand  Army  crossed  the 
Vistula,  Napoleon  signed  an  advantageous  peace  with  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
whereby  that  prince  was  elevated  to  royal  degree,  and,  in  return,  sent  his  army 
to  join  the  oppressor  in  his  march  against  the  Russians. 

The  Emperor  had  not  neglected  to  stir  up  a  diversion  against  Russia  at 
Constantinople.  His  ambassador  at  the  Porte,  Sebastiani,  had  induced  the 
Sultan  to  forbid  the  Russian  vessels  entrance  to  the  Bosphorus,  and  to  make 
pretensions  on  Walachia  and  Moldavia.  The  result  was  that  war  had  broken 
out  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  and  a  Russian  army,  originally  designed  for 
the  Polish  frontier,  was  diverted  to  these  principalities.     Napoleon  was  vastly 

*  Bourrienne,  ii.  372. 


THE    CAMPAIGN    IN    POLAND 


339 


pleased  at  this  success;  he  wrote  to  the  Sultan,  Selim,  on  the  nth  November  : 
"  Recover  confidence.  Destiny  has  resolved  on  the  continuance  of  your  empire  ; 
I  am  commissioned  to  save  it,  and  I  place  to  your  account  all  my  victories." 
As  though  to  give  a  more  irrevocable  character  to  these  engagements,  he 
inserted  them  in  his  messages  to  the  Senate,  and  he  pointed  out  how  great  would 
be  the  disgrace  of  abandoning  Turkey,  and  what  dangers  would  ensue  there- 
from to  civilised  Europe. 

At  the  same  time  he  sent  a  mission  to  the  Shah  of  Persia,  to  engage  him  to 
march  against  the  Russians  by  the  Caucasus. 


MON    KMPEREUR,   C  EST   LA    PLUS   CUITE.' 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


The  severity  of  the  climate,  and  the  frightful  state  of  the  roads  in  Poland, 
the  sleet  and  snow,  the  ice  and  cutting  winds,  would  not  induce  the  Emperor 
to  forego  a  winter  campaign.  He  was  well  aware  that  the  enemy  was  worse  pro- 
visioned than  his  own  army.  He  desired,  moreover,  by  a  blow  to  break  and 
scatter  the  army  of  Bennigsen  in  front  of  him,  before  the  Poles  had  opened 
their  eyes  to  the  hollowness  of  his  professions. 

The  Russians  under  Bennigsen  retired  due  north,  in  the  direction  of  the 
Niemen,  as  if  intending  to  cross  that  river,  and  draw  the  enemy  into  the  wide 
country  beyond.  But  this  wise  design  was  abandoned,  and  Bennigsen  halted 
at  Pultusk,  at  the  distance  of  only  a  few  days'  march  from  Warsaw,  and  there 
a  bloody  battle  was  fought  on  the  26th  of  December,  1806.     The  Russians 


340        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

were  attacked  by  the  divisions  of  Lannes  and  Davoust,  and  by  the  French 
Guards,  the  pick  of  Bonaparte's  army  They  gallantly  repelled  the  attacks 
made  on  their  centre  and  on  their  left,  and  cut  to  pieces  the  French  on  their 
right.  The  French  lost  nearly  8000  men  in  killed  and  wounded,  and  the 
Russian  loss  was  estimated  at  5000.  In  the  darkness  of  the  night,  the  French 
began  their  retreat  to  the  Vistula ;  Bonaparte  returned  to  Warsaw  with  his 
Guards,  and  the  army  was  put  into  winter  quarters.  The  Russians  also  retired 
to  Ostrolenka,  where  Bennigsen  was  joined  by  Prince  Galitzin.     The  critical 


"apres  vous,  sire!" 

From  a  lithograph  by  Charlet. 

situation  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  cooped  up  in  Konigsberg,  with  only  a  few 
thousand  men,  and  threatened  by  the  divisions  of  Ney  and  Bernadotte,  did  not 
allow  Bennigsen  to  take  long  repose.  He  resumed  offensive  operations  with 
great  spirit,  and  forced  the  French  from  their  winter  quarters  into  the  field — a 
field  covered  with  ice  and  snow,  and  swept  by  pitiless  winds. 

In  a  proclamation  to  the  army  issued  on  the  30th  of  January,  1807, 
Napoleon  announced  an  approaching  victory  as  the  result  of  his  forward  move- 
ment :— 

"The  Russians  are  drawn  on  by  that  fatality  which  constantly  dogs  the 
counsels  of  our  enemies.     They  go  to  war  with  Turkey  at  the  moment  when 


THE   CAMPAIGN    IN    POLAND  343 

we  are  on  their  frontiers.  They  break  up  their  winter  quarters  and  rush  on 
their  conquerors  to  experience  fresh  defeats.  As  it  must  be  so,  let  us  leave  our 
repose,  which  damages  our  reputation,  and  let  them  fly  before  our  eagles,  scared 
beyond  the  Niemen.  We  will  pass  the  rest  of  the  winter  in  the  beautiful  land 
of  Old  Prussia,  and  our  enemies  will  have  only  themselves  to  reproach  for  the 
disasters  they  will  suffer." 

He  had  good  cause  to  be  confident.  England  had  been  slow  in  answering 
the  appeals  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia  for  men  and  money,  and  Bennigsen's 
forces  were  short  of  clothing,  muskets,  and  ammunition.  Napoleon  had  taken 
pains  to  secure  the  services  of  the  Jews  who  swarmed  in  Poland.  They  spied 
on  the  movements  of  the  enemy,  they  swept  the  country  for  provisions,  which 
they  brought  to  the  French  camp,  whilst  the  Russians  starved,  and  Bennigsen, 
through  the  misplaced  parsimony  of  the  English  Government,  the  poverty  of 
the  Russian  treasury,  and  the  fraud  of  the  commissariat  officers,  was  unable  to 
compete  in  the  Jew  market  with  the  golden  napoleons  lavished  by  the  French. 

The  French,  moreover,  greatly  outnumbered  the  Russians.  They  had  in 
the  field  at  least  85,000  men,  to  oppose  75,000  Russians  and  Prussians. 

The  desperate  and  sanguinary  battle  of  Eylau  began  at  daybreak  on  the 
8th  February.  Half-starved,  half-naked  as  they  were,  the  Russian  infantry 
fought  heroically ;  and  their  artillery  shattered  the  column  of  Augereau,  and 
beat  back  Marshal  Soult,  who  had  advanced  to  the  attack,  preceded  by  150 
pieces  of  artillery.  A  snowstorm  was  raging  at  the  time,  and  so  thick  was  the 
snow  in  the  air,  that  the  P'rench  columns  did  not  perceive  that  the  Cossacks 
were  upon  them  on  one  flank,  and  the  whole  Russian  right  on  the  other,  until 
touched  by  the  Cossack  lances ;  and  then  they  broke  and  fled  in  confusion,  pur- 
sued by  the  Cossacks,  who  speared  them.  Of  a  corps  of  16,000  men,  only  1500 
escaped.  The  fugitives  rushed  into  Eylau,  where  the  Emperor  was  standing  in 
the  churchyard,  and  he  narrowly  escaped  being  captured. 

The  Imperial  Guard  was  ordered  up,  and  broke  the  Russian  centre,  which, 
however,  did  not  fall  into  confusion,  but  allowed  the  Cuirassiers  to  pass 
through,  then  closed,  and  the  French  Cuirassiers  were  cut  to  pieces.  Twelve 
French  eagles  were  taken,  and  fourteen  pieces  of  cannon  ;  but  the  balance  was 
somewhat  redressed  by  Davoust  on  the  French  right,  who  turned  the  Russian 
left.  At  this  moment  the  Prussians  arrived,  and  restored  the  fortunes  of  the 
day.  Night  came  on,  leaving  the  Russians  practically  masters  of  the  field  ; 
and  had  Bennigsen  been  able  to  pursue  his  advantage,  the  result  would  have 
been  the  total  rout  of  the  French.  But  his  men  were  without  ammunition  or 
food,  and  to  the  surprise  and  satisfaction  of  the  French,  he  retreated. 

The  loss  on  both  sides  had  been  enormous ;  no  reliance  can  be  placed  on 
the  numbers  of  killed  and  wounded  given  by  Napoleon,*  but  his  loss  cannot 
have  been  under  30,000  men,  killed  and  wounded. 

The  best  testimony  as  to  the  real  effect  of  the  battle  of  Eylau  was  borne 

*  On  the  same  day  he  wrote  to  Cambaceres,  in  Paris,  that  the  French  losses  amounted  to  3,000 
killed  and  1,500  wounded  ;  and  to  Daru,  at  Thorn,  **  You  say  that  there  are  only  5,000  wounded  in  the 
hospital.  There  must  be  more;  I  counted  from  7,000  to  8,000."  According  to  the  heads  of  the  corps, 
the  number  was  12,000. 


344        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

by  Bonaparte  himself.  It  was  usual  with  him  to  at  once  follow  up  a  victory  ; 
but  after  Eylau  he  remained  inactive  for  eight  days  ;  and  instead  of  sending  an 
arrogant  message  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia  and  the  King  of  Prussia,  he  wrote 
one  of  a  courteous  nature  to  Frederick  William,  containing  proposals  for  peace, 
which  he  despatched  by  General  Bertrand,  who  was  instructed  to  throw  the 
Poles  overboard.  "  Let  the  General  allow  it  to  be  seen  that  as  to  Poland, 
since  the  Emperor  has  come  to  know  it,  he  sets  no  value  on  it  at  all."  * 

Frederick  William,  however,  refused  to  accede  to  any  peace  in  which  Russia 
was  not  included.  On  the  19th  February,  Napoleon  evacuated  Eylau,  and  re- 
treated to  the  Vistula. 

The  fate  of  Napoleon  at  this  period  hung  on  a  thread.  Had  Austria 
joined  the  Coalition  after  Eylau,  instead  of  offering  to  mediate,  and  had  not 
Russia,  with  strange  infatuation,  chosen  this  time  for  war  with  Turkey,  and 
had  England  furnished  the  subsidies  she  had  promised,  the  career  of  Napoleon 
in  the  morasses  of  Poland,  away  from  his  base,  would  have  been  cut  short,  and 
Europe  would  have  been  saved  years  of  bloodshed. 

The  rest  of  the  winter  was  spent  in  entertainments  at  Warsaw,  where  the 
Emperor  fell  under  the  fascinations  of  a  beautiful  Polish  Countess.  Savary 
says : — 

"  The  Emperor  and  all  the  French  officers  paid  their  tribute  of  admiration 
to  the  charms  of  the  fair  Poles.  There  was  one  whose  powerful  fascinations 
made  a  deep  impression  on  the  Emperor's  heart.  He  conceived  an  ardent 
affection  for  her,  which  she  cordially  returned.  She  received  with  pride  the 
homage  of  a  conquest  which  was  the  consummation  of  her  happiness.  It  is 
needless  to  name  her.f  The  rumour  of  this  liaison  reached  Josephine,  and 
made  her  uneasy.  She  begged  to  be  allowed  to  come  to  Warsaw.  Napoleon 
answered, '  Be  gay,  content,  live  happily.  I  love  you,  think  of  you,  desire  you 
— but  don't  come.' " 

Again,  on  May  loth,  1807,  Napoleon  wrote  to  his  wife,  "I  know  nothing 
of  the  ladies  you  say  correspond  with  me.  I  love  only  my  good,  pouting, 
capricious  Josephine,  who  knows  how  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  the  good  grace  she 
exhibits  in  all  she  does ;  for  she  is  always  amiable,  except  when  she  is  jealous, 
and  then  she  is  the  very  devil.  But  to  return  to  those  ladies.  If  I  were  to 
notice  any  of  them,  I  should  like  them  to  be  rosebuds ;  and  none  of  them 
fulfil  that  condition." 

In  spite  of  lying  bulletins,  %  the  truth  that  at  Eylau  the  French  army  had 
met  with  disaster  could  not  wholly  be  concealed  from  the  people.  Private 
letters,  and  the  Russian  account,  transmitted  through  English  papers,  reached 
Paris,  and  much  alarm  was  felt  lest  the  Austrians  should  declare  themselves, 
and  cut  the  communication  of  the  Grand  Army  with  France.     Unhappily  for 

*  Instructions y  13th  February,  1807. 

t  Memoires  du  Due  de  Rovigo,  iii.  26.  Her  name  was  Walewska.  The  fruit  of  this  liaison  was 
the  Count  Alexander  Florian  Joseph  Colonna  Walewska,  who  filled  several  high  posts  under  the  Second 
Empire. 

X  In  Bernadotte's  baggage,  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Russians,  was  found  evidence  of  the 
manner  in  which  false  bulletins  were  manufactured.  Along  with  the  official  despatches  of  all  the  actions 
in  the  campaign,  which  were  to  be  published,  were  private  despatches  for  Napoleon's  eye  only,  giving  the 
facts  as  they  really  occurred. 


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NAPOLEON    DECORATING    A    RUSSIAN    SOLDIER. 
From  a  painting  by  Debret. 


THE   CAMPAIGN    IN    POLAND  347 

the  peace  of  Europe,  the  Austrians  remained  neutral.  England  was  likewise 
inert ;  there  was  no  Pitt  now  at  the  head  of  the  Ministry. 

The  general  gloom  in  France  was  increased  by  the  demand  made  by 
Napoleon,  on  March  26th,  for  a  fresh  conscription  of  80,000  men  ;  this  was  the 
third  levy  which|had  been  called  for  since  the  Prussian  War  began.  The  three 
conscriptions  supplied'^no  less  than  240,000  men  in  seven  months,  and  the  call 
for  the  third  was  a  plain  indication  of  the  ravages  caused  by  war.  The  number 
of  young  men  who  reached  the  age  of  eighteen  annually  in  France  was  esti- 
mated at  200,000 ;  consequently  in  half  a  year  more  than  an  entire  annual 
generation  had  been  swept  up,  and  carried  off  to  lay  their  bones  in  the  East  of 
Europe,  fighting  -for  nothing  national,  solely  to  satisfy  the  caprice  of  one  man. 

By  the  month  of  June  Bonaparte  had  200,000  men  on  the  Vistula,  and 
between  that  river  and  the  Niemen. 

On  the  14th  June  the  decisive  battle  of  Friedland  was  fought  but  a  few 
miles  distant  from  Eylau,  and  on  the  anniversary  of  Marengo.  The  battle  was 
won  by  the  concentration  of  the  French  artillery  upon  one  point,  whereas 
Bennigsen  had  scattered  his  along  his  line.  At  the  outset  success  seemed  to 
favour  the  Russians.  Their  Imperial  Guard  drove  in  the  division  of  Ney,  and 
shook  that  of  Dupont.  The  battle  was  hardly  contested,  and  the  losses  of  the 
French  so  great,  that  Napoleon  was  unable  to  pursue  his  success,  and  complete 
the  overthrow  of  a  beaten  enemy. 

Even  after  the  reverse  at  Friedland,  steadiness  and  fortitude  on  the  part  of 
the  Czar,  with  no  extraordinary  exertion  on  that  of  his  allies,  would  have 
retrieved  the  disaster,  and  would  probably  have  resulted  in  the  complete  defeat 
of  Napoleon,  who  viewed  with  alarm  the  assembling  of  an  Austrian  army  on 
the  Bohemian  frontier,  and  whose  soldiers,  undeceived  by  his  proclamations, 
saw  that  battle  with  Russians  meant  something  very  different  from  that  with 
Austrians  and  Italians. 

j'l;*  But  Alexander  was  discouraged.  His  officers  murmured  at  having  to  make 
such  sacrifices  on  account  of  the  King  of  Prussia.  Above  all,  he  was  angry 
with  Great  Britain,  which  had  left  him  in  the  lurch.  He  thought  he  had  done 
enough  for  Prussia  ;  and,  without  consulting  Frederick  William,  he  proposed 
an  armistice,  to  which  the  French  Emperor  eagerly  consented. 

By  the  prospect  of  obtaining  Finland  from  Sweden,  and  of  being  allowed  a 
free  hand  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  the  Czar  allowed  himself  to  be  cajoled  into 
a  French  alliance.  Not  till  Alexander  and  Napoleon  had  agreed  to  an  offensive 
and  defensive  [alliance  against  England  was  the  deceived  King  of  Prussia  in- 
formed of  his  fate. 

On  the  eve  of  Austerlitz,  Napoleon  had  suggested  to  Prince  Dolgorouki 
that]  Russia  should  expand  at  the  cost  of  her  neighbours,  but  the  Emperor 
Alexander  had]  rejected  the  suggestion.  The  only  neighbour  of  whom  he 
coveted  aught  was  Turkey.     But  now  the  aspect  of  affairs  was  changed. 

"  The  fortune  of  his  adversary  had  grown  with  every  obstacle  opposed  to 
him,  and  because  of  them.  Nothing  had  held  its  ground  against  him,  neither 
old  systems  nor  modern  ideas.     Pitt  had  died  of  a  broken  heart ;  Fox,  whom 


348        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

he  had  hoodwinked,  was  dead  ;  the  Prussian  monarchy  had  been  ground  to- 
powder  in  one  day ;  in  France  all  opposition  had  ceased.  Rights,  liberties, 
virtue,  genius,  everything,  had  been  twisted,  turned  aside,  and  had  failed.  Was 
not  this  a  token  of  Destiny,  a  proof  that  this  domination  without  precedent 
was  of  the  force  of  Nature,  and  would  it  not  be  better  to  share  with  it,  than  to 
be  lost  in  braving  it  ?"* 

The  interview  between  the  two  Emperors  took  place  at  Tilsit,  on  a  raft  in 
the  midst  of  the  river  Memel.  On  this  was  constructed  a  room,  elegantly 
decorated,  having  two  doors  opposite  each  other.  The  roof  was  surmounted 
by  two  weathercocks,  one  displaying  the  Russian  eagle,  the  other  that  of 
France. 

The  two  Sovereigns  embarked  at  the  same  moment ;  but  Napoleon,  having 
the  best  rowers,  reached  the  raft  first,  and,  passing  through  the  room,  stationed 
himself  at  the  edge  of  the  raft  to  receive  the  Czar.  A  salute  of  a  hundred  guns 
was  fired  the  moment  Alexander  arrived  where  Napoleon  was  awaiting  him. 

Napoleon  was  a  master  of  the  art  of  cajolery,  and  from  the  moment  that  he 
met  Alexander  he  completely  won  him.  "  I  hate  the  English,"  said  the  Czar, 
"just  as  much  as  you  hate  them." 

"  If  that  be  so,"  replied  Napoleon,  "  then  peace  is  soon  made." 

The  folly  of  the  vacillating  English  Government  had  indeed  so  angered 
the  Autocrat  of  the  Russias,  as  to  throw  him  into  the  arms  of  the  French 
Emperor. 

This  first  interview  lasted  two  hours  ;  and  Alexander  was  so  fascinated  by 
the  terrible  Conqueror  of  Europe,  that  he  was  ready  to  have  the  town  of  Tilsit 
neutralised,  that  they  might  be  enabled  to  meet  the  oftener. 

Meanwhile  the  humbled  King  of  Prussia  and  his  Queen  were  lodged  in  a 
mill  in  the  suburbs,  and  it  was  not  till  after  the  two  Emperors  had  settled  the 
preliminaries  that  Frederick  William  was  admitted  to  their  company,  and  with 
sad  countenance,  but  sadder  heart,  learned  that  his  kingdom  was  reduced  to 
Old  Prussia,  Pomerania,  Brandenburg,  and  Silesia.  Moreover,  Napoleon 
insisted  that  it  should  be  registered  in  the  treaty  that  he  made  these  con- 
cessions solely  out  of  consideration  for  the  Czar  Alexander.  This  was  to 
inflict  humiliation  after  defeat. 

Out  of  the  portion  of  Prussia  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Elbe  the  kingdom  of 
Westphalia  was  to  be  formed  for  Jerome  Bonaparte,  the  youngest  of  the 
brothers,  and  the  scapegrace ;  and  neither  the  supplications  of  the  Prussian 
Monarch  nor  the  entreaty  of  his  beautiful  Queen  could  induce  him  to  modify 
his  resolution. 

Napoleon  treated  her  with  scant  politeness.  Macaulay,  in  comparing 
Napoleon  and  Caesar,  said  truly  of  the  latter,  that  he  was  a  perfect  gentle- 
man. Napoleon  had  not  a  particle  of  the  element  of  a  gentleman  in  him.  As 
Talleyrand  put  it,  "  'Twas  a  sad  pity  that  so  great  a  m.an  had  been  so  ill-bred." 

As  the  price  of  peace  with  Alexander,  Napoleon  at  once  cast  overboard  his 
pledges  to  Turkey.     He  had  sworn  not  to  make  peace  without  the  latter,  and 

*  Lanfrey,  iv.  117. 


NAPOLEON    RECEIVING   QUEEN   LOUISE  AT  TILSIT, 
From  a  painting  by  Gosse. 


r 


THE    CAMPAIGN    IN    POLAND  351 

to  maintain  its  integrity ;  now  he  professed  his  willingness  for  Alexander  to 
take  possession  of  Moldavia  and  Walachia,  and,  should  Turkey  resist,  to  assist 
him,  and  divide  the  European  realms  of  the  Sultan  between  Russia  and  France. 

Poland  was  also  abandoned,  but  not  with  the  same  completeness.  He 
erected  a  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw  out  of  the  Prussian  portion  of  Poland, 
which  he  gave  to  the  King  of  Saxony. 

But  the  Peace  of  Tilsit  was  aimed  chiefly  against  England.  Russia  was  to 
enter  into  the  continental  system,  and  close  her  ports  against  the  trade  of 
Great  Britain.  By  a  secret  clause,  it  was  resolved  that  Napoleon  should  take 
possession  of  the  Danish  fleet  lying  at  Copenhagen. 

More  has  been  made  of  the  disappointment  of  Polish  hopes  than  is  justified. 
Napoleon  was  in  an  extremely  delicate  position.  He  dared  not  offend  Austria 
by  taking  from  her  that  portion  of  Poland  which  had  fallen  to  her  share,  and 
his  desire  to  make  peace  with  Russia  precluded  his  detaching  her  portion  from 
that  Empire.  The  Poles  of  the  so-called  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw  gained 
nothing  by  their  transfer  from  the  crown  of  Prussia  to  that  of  Saxony,  save 
the  sentimental  gratification  of  calling  themselves  members  of  a  semi-indepen- 
dent Duchy,  with  a  Constitution  of  their  own. 

As  Napoleon  said  to  Rapp  : — 

"  I  love  the  Poles  ;  their  enthusiastic  character  pleases  me ;  I  would  like  to 
make  them  independent,  but  that  is  a  difficult  matter.  Austria,  Russia,  and 
Prussia,  have  all  had  a  slice  of  the  cake ;  when  the  match  is  once  kindled,  who 
knows  where  the  conflagration  may  stop  ?  My  first  duty  is  towards  France, 
which  I  must  not  sacrifice  to  Poland  ;  we  must  refer  this  matter  to  the  Sovereign 
of  all  things — Time  ;  he  will  presently  show  us  what  we  must  do." 

Had  he  succeeded  as  he  expected  in  the  campaign,  and  annihilated  the 
army  of  Russia,  as  he  had  that  of  Prussia,  he  might,  and  almost  surely  would, 
have  answered  the  expectations  of  the  Poles ;  but  as  his  campaign  had  been 
but  partially  successful,  it  would  have  been  unreasonable  to  require  of  him  that 
he  should  do  what  under  the  circumstances  was  impossible.  Whether,  had  he 
constituted  Poland  as  a  province,  "  protected  "  by  him,  it  would  not  have  been 
sucked  dry  of  its  resources,  picked  to  the  bone,  as  every  other  province  was 
that  was  under  his  sway,  is  another  question. 


XXXIX 

SPAIN 

(1807-8) 

^nr^HE  project  formed  by  Napoleon  of  seizing  on  the  Danish  navy  to  supply 
-■-     France  with  a  fleet,  was  frustrated  by  the  rapidity  with  which  the  English 
Ministry,  informed  of  his  purpose,  forestalled  him,  and  by  sending  Lord  Cathcart 
to  Copenhagen,  removed  the  Danish  fleet  and  stores  beyond  his  reach. 
Bonaparte  explained  his  scheme  thus  : — 

"  After  Russia  had  joined  my  alliance,  Prussia,  as  a  matter  of  course,  followed 
her  example ;  Portugal,  Sweden,  and  the  Pope  alone  required  to  be  gained  over, 
for  we  were  well  aware  that  Denmark  would  throw  herself  into  our  arms.  .  .  . 
The  whole  of  the  maritime  forces  of  the  Continent  were  then  to  be  employed 
against  England,  and  they  could  muster  180  sail  of  the  line.  In  a  few  years, 
this  force  could  be  raised  to  250.  With  the  aid  of  such  a  fleet,  and  my  immense 
flotilla,  it  was  by  no  means  impossible  to  lead  a  European  army  to  London. 
One  hundred  ships  of  the  line  employed  against  her  colonies  would  suffice  to 
draw  off  a  large  proportion  of  the  British  navy ;  eighty  more  in  the  Channel 
would  have  sufficed  to  assure  the  passage  of  the  flotilla."  * 

As  his  plan  of  securing  the  Danish  navy  was  frustrated,  he  ordered  Junot,  at 
the  head  of  a  large  body  of  young  recruits,  to  hasten  into  Portugal  by  forced 
marches,  and  lay  hands  on  the  Portuguese  fleet  in  the  Tagus.  But  here  again 
he  was  defeated,  for  on  the  very  day  on  which  Junot  arrived,  the  fleet  set  sail, 
carrying  with  it  the  royal  family,  and  18,000  Portuguese,  with  all  their  movable 
goods  (30th  Nov.,  1807).  Napoleon  had  been  enabled  to  send  his  troops  through 
Spain  by  virtue  of  a  treaty  drawn  up  and  signed  at  Fontainebleau  on  the  27th 
October,  but  which  was  not  as  yet  published.  By  this  treaty  it  was  agreed  with 
Spain  (i)  That  a  free  passage  should  be  granted  through  Spanish  territories  to 
a  French  army  appointed  to  invade  Portugal,  and  that  a  Spanish  army  should  be 
furnished  to  co-operate  with  it.  (2)  That  Portugal  should  be  subjugated  and 
divided  into  two  portions,  whereof  the  southernmost  should  be  erected  into  a 
Principality  for  Godoy,  the  favourite,  the  Prince  of  the  Peace,  and  the  northern- 
most should  be  granted  as  indemnification  for  Tuscany,  which  was  coveted  by 
Napoleon,  and  this  should  be  given  to  the  Queen  of  Etruria.  And  (3)  till  the 
proclamation  of  a  general  peace,  France  was  to  occupy  the  city  of  Lisbon  and 

*  JOMINI,   Vie  de  NapoUon,  ii.  449. 
352 


SPAIN  353 

three  provinces.  Nine  days  after  the  signature  of  this  treaty,  Junot  was  de- 
spatched with  30,000  men  across  the  Bidassoa.  As  an  excuse,  an  ultimatum  had 
been  presented  to  the  Regent  of  Portugal,  requiring  him  to  enter  into  the  con- 
tinental blockade,  and  to  confiscate  English  goods,  to  close  his  ports  against  the 
English,  and  to  engage  to  proclaim  war  against  them.*  The  Regent  agreed  to 
every  clause  except  one ;  he  demurred  to  the  seizure  of  English  wine-growers' 
estates.  That  sufficed  Napoleon,  and  Junot  was  let  loose  on  the  unhappy  land. 
The  instructions  given  that  general  showed  that  the  Emperor  had  other  views 
than  the  occupation  of  Portugal.  He  bade  him  take  along  with  him  engineer 
officers,  who  on  the  march  might  map  the  Spanish  roads,  and  observe  the  strong 
places. 

Junot's  army,  as  already  intimated,  was  made  up  of  young  conscripts,  for 
the  most  part  under  the  age  of  eighteen  ;  they  had  been  enlisted  in  anticipation 
of  the  proper  time.  With  these  boys  he  was  goaded  on  by  the  Emperor  to  take 
fatiguing  marches  over  barren  plains  and  mountain  ridges  ;  the  youthful  soldiers 
died  like  flies,  and  to  no  purpose,  as  on  the  day  before  he  arrived  at  Lisbon  the 
fleet  had  departed.  Thousands  of  innocent  people,  whose  sole  crime  was  that 
they  had  attracted  the  cupidity  of  a  pitiless  conqueror,  were  driven  from  their 
homes,  their  lands,  their  kinsfolk,  to  take  refuge  across  the  Atlantic  in  a  strange 
land. 

By  Napoleon's  orders,  not  only  were  all  the  English  merchandise  and  proper- 
ties confiscated,  but  also  the  whole  soil  of  Portugal,  which  the  landowners  were 
required  to  redeem  at  the  price  of  100,000,000  francs.  Every  French  soldier 
was  to  be  quartered  and  maintained  free  of  charge,  and  to  be  moreover  furnished, 
in  addition  to  his  rations,  with  a  bottle  of  wine  daily,  with  which  he  might  trade. 
The  Portuguese  arms  were  everywhere  torn  down,  and  the  French  tricolor  was 
hoisted  over  every  fortress.  The  House  of  Braganza,  so  it  was  announced,  had 
ceased  to  reign.  It  had  forfeited  its  rights  by  flight.  A  grand  illumination  was 
ordered  by  Junot,  in  honour  of  the  change  of  Government,  but  only  three  houses 
were  lighted  on  this  occasion.  The  higher  classes  had  fled,  and  the  peasants  re- 
tired to  the  mountains  to  organise  revolt. 

In  a  letter  to  Junot,  dated  the  12th  November,  1807,  Napoleon  drew  a  pretty 
picture  of  what  the  occupation  of  a  neutral  State  signified  : — 

"  It  is  for  you  to  set  an  example  of  disinterestedness.  See,  above  all,  that 
the  army  is  paid.  What  is  derived  from  captures,  from  jewels,  and  from 
English  merchandise,  shall  go  half  to  the  privy  purse  and  half  to  the  army ; 
and,  in  this  half,  the  generals  and  the  chiefs  will  have  no  reason  to  complain  of 
their  treatment.  The  English  goods  must  be  seized,  and  Englishmen  arrested 
and  sent  to  France ;  all  English  property,  even  funded,  as  well  as  houses, 
vineyards,  &c.,  must  be  sequestrated  in  my  name.  .  .  .  Have  all  the  precious 
articles  you  take  packed  in  boxes,  and  sent  to  the  office  of  the  Sinking  Fund." 

"  There  is  something  at  once  lugubrious  and  grotesque,"  remarks  the  Hon. 
D.  A.  Bingham,  "in  this  way  of  crying  halves  with  Junot,  who  was  about  to  let 

*  By  treaty  concluded  on  the  19th  March,  1804,  Portugal  had  paid  ;^640,ooo  for  the  privilege  of 
keeping  open  her  ports  and  remaining  neutral ;  yet  now,  in  1807,  Napoleon  invaded  and  occupied  Portugal, 
because  she  had  done  that  which  three  years  before  she  had  bought  permission  to  do. 
2    A 


354        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

loose  his  soldiery  on  an  unfortunate  country,  which  had  committed  no  crime 
beyond  remaining  on  friendly  terms  with  England." 

Meanwhile  a  similar  game  was  being  played  in  Italy.     Already,  in  1806,  the 
Pope  had  been  warned  to  enter  into  the  Convention  against  England.     To  his 

uncle,  Cardinal  Fesch,  Napoleon  had  written 
on  February  13th,  1806: — 

"  I  shall  protect  the  Papal  States  against 
the  whole  world.  Have  the  bulls  sent  to  my 
bishops.  They  take  a  month  (at  Rome)  to 
do  the  work  of  twenty-four  hours.  This  is 
not  religion.  In  Germany  there  is  general 
outcry  against  the  Court  of 
Rome.  Its  conduct  is  re- 
volting. I  hold  you  respon- 
sible for  the  execution  of 
these  two  points — first  the 
expulsion  of  the  English, 
Russians,  Swedes,  and  Sar- 
dinians from  the  Roman 
States  ;  second,  the  prohibi- 
tion of  the  ships  of  those 
Powers  from  entering  the 
Roman  ports.  Say  that  I 
have  my  eyes  open  ;  that  I 
am  Charlemagne,  the  sword 
of  the  Church,  their  Em- 
peror ;  that  they  ought  not 
to  know  that  the  Empire  of 
Russia  exists." 

Notwithstanding  this  as- 
surance that  he  would  pro- 
tect the  States  of  the  Church, 
he  was  resolved  to  annex 
them  ;  and  to  do  this,  he 
proceeded  in  the  same  way 
as  in  Spain.  He  ordered 
BUST  BY  EUGENE  GuiLLAUME.  ^    French   army  to    march, 

ostensibly  for  Naples ;  to 
halt  on  its  way  in  Rome  to  recruit  itself,  and  take  the  opportunity  of  seizing 
on  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  and  to  remain  in  Rome  on  one  pretext  or  another. 

"The  intention  of  the  Emperor,"  so  ran  the  instructions  given  by  Napoleon 
to  his  ambassador,  "  is  to  accustom  the  people  of  Rome  to  live  on  good  terms 
with  the  French  troops,  in  order  that  if  the  Court  of  Rome  should  continue  to 
show  itself  as  unreasonable  as  it  is,  the  Papacy  may  insensibly  cease  to  exist  as 
a  temporal  Power,  without  it  being  perceived  that  it  is  so." 

On  the  1 6th  of  November,  Bonaparte  quitted  Paris  to  visit  Milan  and 
Venice.     He  had  a  deep  object  in  this  journey ;    a  peculiarly  dishonourable 


SPAIN  355 

intrigue  was  about  to  be  played  in  Spain,  and  he  desired  to  be  out  of  the  way 
whilst  his  agents  were  fulfilling  his  mandate.  He  also  determined  to  make  an 
end  of  the  Kingdom  of  Etruria,  which  he  had  erected  but  a  few  years  pre- 
viously ;  and  not  to  incorporate  it  into  the  Kingdom  of  Italy,  but  to  unite  it  to 
the  French  Empire.  Forthwith  Tuscany,  with  all  its  ports,  was  occupied  by 
French  troops.  There  then  remained  in  all  Italy  only  the  seaports  of  the 
Roman  States  open  to  the  British  flag,  and  these  he  determined  to  close 
immediately.  French  troops  were  sent  to  occupy  Civita  Vecchia,  and  secure 
the  mouths  of  the  Tiber ;  and  on  the  Adriatic  a  strong  garrison  was  thrown 
into  Ancona.     The  Pope  was  ordered  to  declare  war  on  England. 

On  the  2nd  of  April,  1808,  Bonaparte  by  one  of  his  sweeping  decrees, 
annexed  the  Marches,  or  Adriatic  provinces  of  the  Pope,  to  the  Kingdom  of 
Italy.  Pius  VII.  was  hardly  unprepared  for  this.  His  nuncio,  Arezzo,  had 
been  admitted  to  an  interview  at  Dresden  with  Napoleon  a  year  before,  wherein 
the  views  of  the  Emperor  and  his  purposes  had  been  put  before  him  with  toler- 
able frankness. 

Spain  meanwhile  was  being  traversed  by  French  troops,  under  the  pretext 
that  they  were  on  their  way  to  support  Junot  in  Portugal.  On  the  13th 
November,  a  second  army,  under  Dupont,  was  sent  across  the  frontier,  in 
violation  of  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  signed  only  a  fortnight  before,  which 
limited  the  troops  to  the  one  army  first  to  be  despatched,  unless  the  special 
consent  of  the  King  were  granted.  Dupont  received  orders  to  halt  at  Vittoria, 
and  send  officers  throughout  the  country,  mapping  and  making  observations. 
Next  came  Moncey,  at  the  head  of  thirty  thousand  men  to  occupy  Burgos,  and 
then  Duchesne  crossed  the  Eastern  Pyrenees,  and  marched  upon  Barcelona,  a 
march  that  could  hardly  be  explained  as  one  calculated  to  cover  the  Army  of 
Portugal.  At  the  same  time,  a  fifth  body  of  troops  under  D'Armagnac  was 
sent  across  the  Bidassoa  to  occupy  the  citadel  and  fortifications  of  Pampeluna, 
"sans  faire  semblant  de  rien,"  as  Napoleon  ordered.  Already  the  nurpber  of 
soldiers  poured  into  Spain,  exclusive  of  Junot's  army  in  Portugal,  amounted  to 
80,000  men,  and  next,  Bessieres,  at  the  head  of  another  army,  was  directed 
thither.  It  was  now  only  too  clear  to  all  but  the  dullest,  that  a  military  coup 
was  levelled  against  Spain,  and  that  the  army  of  Junot  was  intended  to  operate 
against  her  in  flank. 

The  condition  of  the  Government  was  such  as  to  make  Napoleon  master  of 
the  situation  with  a  little  diplomatic  manoeuvring.  The  King  of  Spain, 
Charles  IV.,  was  one  of  the  feeblest  of  the  faineant  race  of  Bourbon  ;  a  dull, 
timid  man,  and  but  little  removed  from  imbecility.  He  retained  a  tame  con- 
fessor about  his  person,  for  whom  he  used  to  whistle,  as  for  a  dog,  when  he  felt 
a  twinge  of  conscience,  retire  into  an  embrasure  of  a  window,  relieve  his  mind 
in  two  minutes,  and  dismiss  his  confessor  till  he  whistled  for  him  again.*  The 
Queen,  Louisa  Maria  of  Parma,  an  unscrupulous  woman,  had  made  a  paramour 
of  Manuel  Godoy,  a  private  in  the  Guards,  and  had  loaded  him  with  favours. 
The  weak-minded  King,  blind  to  the  connexion,  took  a  great  liking  to  the  burly 

*  Constant,  iv.  40. 


356        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Guardsman,  fell  completely  under  his  influence,  and  created  him  Prince  of  the 
Peace,*  and  Prime  Minister.  The  Infante,  Ferdinand,  Prince  of  the  Asturias, 
was  also  feeble-minded.  He  had  been  married  to  the  daughter  of  the  Queen  of 
Naples.  A  letter  from  her  to  her  mother  had  been  intercepted,  as  well  as  one 
from  the  Queen  of  Naples,  and  as  in  the  latter  a  hint  was  given  to  the  Princess 
to  get  rid  of  her  mother-in-law,  the  Queen  of  Spain  thereupon  had  her  poisoned. 
Ferdinand  was  the  rallying-point  of  Spanish  animosity  against  Godoy,  and  the 
palace  was  torn  into  factions.  Ferdinand,  in  his  feebleness  and  helplessness, 
appealed  by  letter  (nth  Oct.,  1807)  to  Napoleon,  and  asked  to  be  allowed  to 
marry  a  Princess  of  the  Imperial  Bonaparte  House.  The  Emperor  had  placed 
Beauharnais,  his  wife's  brother,  at  Madrid,  as  ambassador ;  an  honest,  single- 
minded  man,  and  by  his  honesty  and  single-mindedness  more  likely  than  any- 
one else  to  perform  the  part  designed  for  him  ;  for  it  was  in  accord  with 
Napoleon's  cunning,  when  he  had  a  peculiarly  treacherous  game  to  play,  to  put 
forward  as  his  agents  honest  men,  whom  he  kept  in  the  dark  as  to  his  ulterior 
objects,  and  who,  by  their  honesty,  imposed  on  those  whom  he  purposed 
duping,  as  he  duped  themselves.  The  King,  or  Godoy,  informed  of  what  had 
been  done  by  the  Prince,  had  Ferdinand  arrested,  and  all  his  papers  seized. 
Amongst  them  was  found,  or  pretended  to  have  been  found,  a  decree,  in  which 
the  Prince  assumed  the  title  of  King,  and  appointed,  as  Prime  Minister,  his 
friend  and  adviser,  the  Duke  del  Infantado.  The  old  King  then  made  a  loud 
and  absurd  appeal  to  the  justice  of  Napoleon,  in  a  letter  written  under  the 
direction  of  Godoy  and  his  Queen,  in  which  he  accused  his  son  of  having  formed 
a  conspiracy  to  dethrone  him. 

Napoleon  was  still  at  Fontainebleau  when  he  received  this  letter.  Every- 
thing was  prepared  for  the  invasion  of  Spain,  both  pretext  and  troops  ;  but  this 
quarrel  between  father  and  son  broke  out  somewhat  prematurely  for  his 
designs.  He  immediately  commanded,  with  the  utmost  secrecy,  the  accumula- 
tion of  immense  stores  both  to  the  east  and  west  of  the  Pyrenees.  He  gave 
orders  also  for  another  army  to  be  collected  with  rapidity  from  Metz,  Nancy, 
and  Sedan,  and  hastened  to  Bordeaux,  so  that  it  might  cross  the  frontier  on  the 
1st  December.  "Take  care,"  he  wrote  to  Clarke,  who  had  the  superintendence, 
"  to  instruct  the  generals  to  announce  to  the  soldiers  that  they  are  proceeding 
by  forced  marches  to  the  succour  of  the  Army  of  Portugal,  against  an  expedi- 
tion that  is  being  fitted  out  by  the  English"  (nth  Nov.,  1807).  At  the  same 
time,  he  commanded  a  retrograde  movement  of  100,000  men  then  in  Germany, 
so  as  to  have  them  at  his  disposal  if  required. 

On  the  1 2th  November,  the  day  following  his  order  to  Clarke,  he  counter- 
manded it,  having  received  in  the  meantime  news  of  the  reconciliation  of 
Charles  IV.  and  Ferdinand.  The  Prince  of  the  Peace  had  discovered  the  hand 
of  France  in  the  palace  quarrel,  and  in  his  alarm  lest  it  should  bring  the 
Emperor  on  the  scene,  he  determined  to  hush  the  matter  up.  A  junta,  com- 
posed of  eleven  persons,  was  instructed  not  to  examine  evidence,  not  to  try  the 

*  So  entitled  for  having  negotiated  a  peace  with  France  whereby  Spain  was  removed  from  the 
Coalition. 


SPAIN  357 

conspirators,  but  to  declare  that  they  were  all  innocent,  and  that  there  had 
never  been  any  plot  at  all.  The  Prince  submitted,  repented,  and  blubbered  like 
a  whipped  schoolboy;  and  on  the  5th  of  November  appeared  a  royal  decree, 
announcing  the  complete  reconciliation  of  the  King  and  Prince.  But  the 
Spaniards  knew  better;  and  aware  that  Ferdinand  was  more  than  ever  the 
mortal  enemy  of  Godoy,  they  took  the  Prince  into  their  especial  favour,  and 
reposed  all  their  hopes  for  the  security  of  Spain  in  this  weak  and  crazy  vessel. 

The  Prince  of  the  Peace  sent  word  to  the  governors  of  the  several  provinces 
to  show  the  French  troops  every  favour ;  and  thus  they  were  suffered  to  occupy 
all  the  fortified  places  on  their  route.  Charles  IV.  now  wrote  to  Napoleon  in 
the  most  flattering  terms  (Nov.  i8th),  to  solicit  an  alliance  with  the  Bonaparte 
House  for  his  son,  and  at  the  same  time  requested  the  publication  of  the  Treaty 
of  Fontainebleau,  which  was  already  violated.  Napoleon  started  for  Italy,  and 
gave  no  reply  to  the  King  till  the  lOth  January,  1808,  a  fortnight  after  his 
return  to  Paris  :  "  Your  Majesty,"  he  said,  "  ought  to  understand  that  no  man  of 
honour  would  wish  for  an  alliance  with  a  dishonoured  son,  till  he  has  certified 
that  he  has  recovered  his  father's  good  favour."  To  this  rebuff  poor  Charles 
made  no  reply.  On  the  25th  February,  1808,  Napoleon  wrote  him  another 
sharp  letter :  "  Your  Majesty  asked  of  me  the  hand  of  a  French  Princess  for 
the  Prince  of  the  Asturias.  I  replied  on  the  lOth  January  that  I  consented  (!). 
Your  Majesty  says  no  more  about  this  marriage.  I  expect  your  friendship  to 
relieve  me  of  my  doubts."  At  the  very  moment  that  he  was  playing  with  the 
King,  he  was  proposing  to  Godoy 's  agent,  Izquierdo,  that  Spain  should  cede  to 
him  the  provinces  of  the  Ebro  in  exchange  for  Portugal. 

This  was  speedily  followed  by  the  nomination  of  Murat  to  the  army  of 
Spain,  and  half  hints  were  thrown  out  to  him  that  he  might  expect  to  acquire 
the  crown  of  that  realm.  On  the  27th  March,  Napoleon  wrote  to  him,  "  Do  not 
suffer  any  harm  to  be  done  to  the  King,  the  Queen,  or  the  Prince  of  the  Peace 
.  .  .  until  such  time  as  the  new  King  is  recognised  by  me ;  behave  as  though 
the  old  King  still  reigned";  and  the  same  day  he  offered  the  Spanish  crown  to 
his  brother  Louis  : — 

"  I  have  resolved  on  setting  a  French  Prince  on  the  throne  of  Spain.  The 
climate  of  Holland  does  not  suit  you.  Besides,  Holland  will  never  recover 
from  its  condition  of  ruin.  .  .  .  Answer  categorically.  If  I  nominate  you  King 
of  Spain,  will  you  accept  ?  May  I  rely  on  you  ?  .  .  .  Give  your  confidence  to 
no  one,  and  do  not  speak  to  anyone  on  the  subject  of  this  letter,  for  a  thing 
must  be  accomplished  before  one  admits  having  thought  of  it." 

Consequently,  by  the  end  of  March,  1808,  Napoleon  had  fully  made  up  his 
mind  to  dethrone  the  royal  family  of  Spain. 

On  the  loth  March,  Murat  had  arrived  at  Burgos  to  take  command-in-chief 
in  Spain,  with  the  title  of  Lieutenant  of  the  Emperor.  It  was  also  known  that 
more  troops,  including  a  part  of  the  Imperial  Guards,  were  being  hastily 
marched  through  France  towards  the  Spanish  frontiers.  Godoy  advised  the 
King  and  Queen  to  fly  to  Cadiz,  and  the  departure  was  fixed  for  the  night  of 
the  17th  of  March,  whereupon  the  palace  was  surrounded  by  the  people  and  by 


358        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

the  soldiery  in  a  state  of  revolt.  The  intentions  of  the  insurgents  admitted  of 
no  doubt ;  the  mob  shouted  for  the  head  of  the  traitor  Godoy,  and  broke  up  the 
royal  carriages,  in  which  the  King  and  his  Court  intended  to  escape.  The 
Prince  of  the  Peace  hid  himself  in  an  attic,  and  when  discovered,  was  only 
saved  from  death  by  the  interference  of  the  friends  of  Prince  Ferdinand.  In 
his  alarm,  Charles  sent  out  to  assure  the  people  that  he  had  resigned  the  crown ; 
and  in  the  evening,  in  the  presence  of  a  few  grandees,  Charles  IV.,  gouty  and 
rheumatic,  signed  the  act  of  abdication  in  favour  of  his  heir,  Ferdinand,  Prince 
of  the  Asturias.     That  same  evening  Ferdinand  was  proclaimed. 

On  receiving  the  news  of  the  revolution,  Murat  hastened  his  march  upon 
Madrid ;  and  on  the  23rd,  only  four  days  after  the  signing  of  the  abdication,  he 
entered  the  capital  of  Spain,  followed  by  a  division  of  French  infantry,  a  brigade 
of  cuirassiers,  and  a  train  of  artillery.  That  something  of  the  sort  had  been 
expected,  perhaps  brought  about  by  Napoleon's  agents,  would  seem  certain  ; 
for  on  the  23rd  March,  the  Emperor  wrote  to  Murat  that  he  anticipated  the 
flight  of  the  King,  and  that  if  he  fled  to  Seville,  he  was  to  allow  him  to  remain 
there  in  security  for  a  while ;  but  that  if  he  attempted  to  escape  to  Cadiz,  and 
thence  to  fly  to  one  of  the  Spanish  colonies,  he  was  to  arrest  him,  as  such  an 
escape  might  entail  the  loss  of  the  Colonies.  "  I  expect  to  hear  news  of  all  that 
has  passed  at  Madrid  on  the  i6th  or  17th  of  March."  He  was  to  announce  that 
Napoleon  in  person  was  on  his  way  to  Madrid. 

Napoleon  had  not  heard  of  the  disturbance  and  the  abdication  of  the  King^ 
on  the  27th  March,  when  he  offered  the  crown  to  his  brother  Louis.  On  the 
30th,  he  wrote  to  Murat : — 

"  You  are  quite  right  not  to  recognise  the  Prince  of  the  Austurias.  Put  King 
Charles  IV.  in  the  Escurial,  and  treat  him  with  great  respect.  I  suppose  that 
the  Prince  of  the  Peace  will  come  to  Bayonne." 

These  last  words  were  a  hint  that  Murat  was  to  force  him  to  go  thither. 
Napoleon  ordered  the  King  to  be  sent  to  Burgos. 

For  the  rest  of  the  intrigue,  someone  more  subservient  than  Murat  was 
needed,  who  was  playing  for  his  own  hand  ;  and  Napoleon  now  sent  that  con- 
summate scoundrel,  Savary,  who  had  managed  the  murder  of  the  Due 
d'Enghien,  to  compass  the  overthrow  of  the  King  and  Queen  and  royal  family 
of  Spain.  Napoleon  himself  now  came  to  Bordeaux,  where  he  arrived  on  the 
4th  April.  What  was  the  nature  of  the  instructions  given  to  Savary  can  only 
be  judged  by  his  acts  ;  they  were  probably  never  committed  to  paper  ;  and  no 
trust  whatever  can  be  placed  on  the  Emperor's  own  account  of  the  transaction, 
any  more  than  on  the  apocryphal  letter  Napoleon  afterwards  produced,  for  it  was 
the  object  of  both  him  and  Savary  to  cast  the  blame  on  the  shoulders  of  Murat, 
so  as  in  a  measure  to  clear  themselves. 

There  may,  however,  be  truth  in  what  Savary  reports  was  said  to  him  before 
he  started,  though  he  certainly  does  not  give  the  whole  truth. 

"  Charles  IV.  has  abdicated," said  Napoleon,"  his  son  has  succeeded  him.  .  .  . 
I  was  fully  prepared  for  some  changes  in  Spain  ;  but  matters  are  taking  a  turn 


SPAIN  359 

altogether  different  from  what  I  intended.  .  .  .  Had  Charles  IV.  continued  to 
reign,  we  might  have  remained  at  peace  ;  but  now  all  is  changed,  Should  that 
country  be  ruled  by  a  warlike  Prince,  he  might  succeed  in  displacing  my  dynasty 
on  the  throne  of  France  by  his  own.  You  see  what  might  happen  in  France,  if 
I  do  not  prevent  it ;  it  is  my  duty  to  foresee  the  danger,  and  take  steps  to  meet 
it.  If  I  cannot  arrange  with  both  father  and  son,  I  will  make  a  clean  sweep  of 
them  both." 

This  is  entirely  consistent  with  what  he  afterwards  said  at  Bayonne  to 
Escoiquiz.  In  fact,  Ferdinand,  brought  in  on  the  crest  of  a  great  national 
reaction,  was  a  different  factor  to  deal  with  than  Charles  IV.,  and  made  the 
overthrow  of  the  dynasty  a  necessity  ;  a  roi  faineant  and  French  administration 
were  no  longer  possible. 

As  soon  as  Savary  arrived  in  Madrid,  Murat  was  set  on  one  side,  and  the 
Duke  of  Rovigo  assumed  the  conduct  of  the  delicate  negotiation.  Sufficient, 
however,  had  already  been  written  to  Murat  to  indicate  the  lines  on  which  the 
concluding  scene  was  to  be  carried  out. 

"  It  is  to  be  desired,"  wrote  the  Emperor  on  April  9th,  "  that  the  Prince  of 
the  Austurias  should  be  at  Madrid,  or  that  he  should  come  to  meet  me.  In  the 
latter  case,  I  will  await  him  at  Bayonne.  It  would  be  unfortunate  if  he  took  a 
third  course  {ix.  were  to  escape).  Savary  knows  all  my  projects,  and  will  have 
communicated  to  you  all  my  intentions.  When  one  knows  the  end  at  which  one 
is  driving,  it  is  easy,  with  a  little  reflection,  to  find  means  to  attain  it." 

On  reaching  Madrid,  Savary  presented  himself  before  Prince  Ferdinand.  It 
was  an  outrage,  sending  such  a  man  to  the  Bourbon  Court ;  but  Napoleon  had 
none  others,  save  the  chief  of  his  gendarmerie  and  secret  police,  whom  he  could 
entrust  with  so  delicate  a  negotiation.  Stupid  as  the  Spanish  royal  family  were, 
they  must  have  known  the  Due  d'Enghien's  history,  must  have  known  that  this 
Due  de  Rovigo  was  the  infamous  creature  who  had  directed  the  murder. 

Savary  began  by  flattering  the  Prince,  giving  him  the  title  of  "Your  Majesty," 
which  had  been  denied  him  by  Murat.  On  his  hasty  journey  from  the  Spanish 
frontier,  Savary  had  everywhere  given  out  that  he  was  the  precursor  of  the 
Emperor,  who  was  following,  his  heart  glowing  with  desire  to  effect  a  reconcilia- 
tion among  the  discordant  elements  in  the  royal  palace  ;  and  he  named  Burgos 
as  the  place  where  his  master  would  await  the  arrival  of  Ferdinand.  "  The 
Emperor,"  said  Savary,  "  has  already  left  Paris;  go  and  meet  him,  and  hear  him 
salute  you  as  Ferdinand  VII.,  King  of  Spain  and  the  Indies." 

With  very  little  hesitation,  the  stupid  Bourbon  Prince  allowed  himself  to  be 
persuaded.  In  his  over-confidence  in  his  strong  position,  he  sacrificed  all  for  the 
shadow  of  French  recognition  of  it.  But,  indeed,  his  position  was  one  that  was 
full  of  difficulty,  even  to  a  man  of  brains.  The  capital  was  occupied  by  French 
troops.  The  patriotic  peasantry  were  more  astute  than  himself,  and  were  rising 
to  oppose  his  journey  to  Bayonne ;  he  did  not  for  a  moment  conceive  it  possible 
that  the  Emperor  of  a  great  nation  was  luring  him  into  a  cunningly-devised  trap. 

From  the  time  he  left  Madrid,  Ferdinand  was  to  all  intents  a  prisoner,  as 
complete  a  prisoner  as  ever  was  felon  or  political  offender  in  the  grip  of  the 
French  police,  and  he  was  under  the  escort  of  Savary's  gendarmes.     When  he 


36o        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

reached  Burgos,  it  was  found  that  the  illustrious  guest  had  not  arrived.  Great 
concerns  of  State  had  no  doubt  retarded  him  on  the  road  ;  but  would  his 
Majesty,  Ferdinand  VII.,  go  a  few  stages  further  towards  the  frontier,  to 
Miranda,  for  instance,  or  as  far  as  Vittoria  ?  By  so  doing,  he  would  have  the 
satisfaction  of  encountering  him  upon  the  way.  The  unfortunate  Prince,  after 
a  very  slight  hesitation,  yielded.  Between  Madrid  and  Burgos  there  had  been 
some  chance  of  escape  or  rescue,  for  there  were  considerable  Spanish  forces  on 
foot  in  that  part  of  the  country ;  but  between  Burgos  and  the  frontier  of  France 
the  whole  country  was  in  possession  of  the  French  troops,  whose  several 
columns  had  been  purposely  concentrated,  and  then  picketed  along  the  high  road. 
The  counsellors  of  Ferdinand  became  alarmed.  Don  Pedro  Cevallos,  who 
has  left  us  a  narrative  of  the  circumstances,  was  especially  urgent  that  he  should 
proceed  no  further.  Savary  saw  that  the  Prince's  mind  was  wavering.  He 
protested  loudly  against  any  alteration  of  plan  as  a  slight  on  the  honour  of  the 
Emperor,  and  on  himself  as  his  envoy. 

"  I  will  let  you  cut  off  my  head,"  said  he,  "  if  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after 
the  meeting  of  your  Majesty  with  the  Emperor,  he  does  not  recognise  you  as  the 
King  of  Spain  and  of  the  Indies.  To  preserve  consistency,  he  may,  in  the  first 
instance,  address  you  by  the  title  of  Highness,  but  directly  after  he  will  give 
you  that  of  Majesty.  The  moment  that  is  done,  everything  is  concluded,  and 
your  Majesty  can  instantly  return  to  Spain." 

The  earnest  manner  of  Savary,  and  his  apparent  sincerity — he  was  an  arch 
dissembler — allayed  suspicion,  and  the  Prince  proceeded  on  his  way  without  a 
single  Spanish  guard  attached  to  his  person,  along  a  road  lined  by  French 
soldiers. 

But  now  the  attitude  of  the  people  became  menacing.  At  Vittoria  their 
emotion  and  alarm  became  so  demonstrative,  that  Savary,  although  armed  with 
full  power  to  use  force  to  convey  the  Prince  over  the  frontier,  in  order  to  pre- 
vent a  riot,  thought  best  to  hurry  forward  to  meet  Napoleon,  and  obtain  fresh 
instructions. 

Ferdinand  wrote  from  Vittoria  to  the  Emperor,  to  detail  everything  that 
he  had  done  in  accordance  with  his  wishes ;  and  he  desired  to  have  some 
assurance  from  him  as  to  his  ulterior  purposes.  Savary  brought  back  a  letter 
from  the  Emperor  : — 

"  My  brother,"  he  wrote,  "  I  have  received  the  communication  of  your  Royal 
Highness,  who  must  have  obtained  a  proof  of  the  interest  I  have  always  borne 
towards  you,  from  the  papers  received  from  the  King,  your  father.  You  will 
permit  me  now  to  address  you  with  frankness  and  loyalty.  In  coming  to 
Madrid,  I  hoped  to  bring  my  illustrious  friend  to  accept  certain  reforms  very 
necessary  in  his  estates." 

Then  Napoleon  entered  into  a  long  discussion  of  what  had  taken  place,  and 
of  the  position  of  the  Prince  of  the  Peace,  to  whom  Ferdinand  had  not  alluded  in 
his  letter : — 

"  How  can  the  Prince  of  the  Peace  be  brought  to  trial  without  implicating 
the  Queen  and  the  King,  your  father  ?    The  result  of  such  a  trial  would  be  fatal 


SPAIN  361 

to  your  crown.  Your  Royal  Highness  has  no  other  rights  than  such  as  have 
been  transmitted  through  your  mother.  If  the  trial  dishonours  your  mother, 
your  rights  are  torn  to  pieces.  You  cannot  bring  the  Prince  of  the  Peace  to  trial. 
The  crimes  of  which  he  is  accused  are  lost  in  the  rights  of  the  Throne." 

Not  a  word  about  guarantees,  which  Ferdinand  had  demanded;  only  an 
insult  thrown  in  his  face — the  suggestion  that  he  was  a  bastard !  The  letter 
was  dated  April  i6th.     Next  day  Napoleon  wrote  to  Bessieres  : — 

"  If  the  Prince  of  the  Asturias  comes  forward  to  Bayonne,  it  is  well.  If  he 
retrogrades  to  Burgos,  arrest  him,  and  bring  him  on." 

The  Prince  was  still  at  Vittoria.  An  old  minister,  Don  Luis  Urquijo,  came 
to  pay  him  his  respects,  and  to  warn  him  that  by  further  progress  he  was  dis- 
honouring the  ancient  crown  ;  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  the 
Prince  was  being  tricked  and  trapped  to  his  destruction.  When  the  Duke  del 
Infantado  remonstrated  at  this  as  a  calumny  against  a  hero,  "  You  don't  know 
what  heroes  are,"  retorted  the  old  Don.  "  Go  home,  read  Plutarch,  and  you  will 
see  that  the  majority  of  them  stepped  into  greatness  over  heaps  of  corpses." 

However,  Ferdinand  allowed  himself  to  be  over-persuaded  ;  but,  indeed,  the 
opportunity  to  withdraw  was  gone.  On  the  i6th  April  he  crossed  the  little 
river  which  serves  as  frontier,  and  was  surprised  to  find  that  the  Emperor  had 
sent  no  one  to  meet  him,  except  three  grandees  of  Spain,  whom  he  had  himself 
despatched  to  compliment  the  Emperor,  and  who  were  now  returning,  downcast 
at  the  reception  they  had  met  with.  He  had  plainly  told  them  that  the  end  of 
the  reign  of  the  Bourbons  in  Spain  had  come. 

It  is  said  that  Bonaparte,  on  learning  of  the  arrival  of  the  Prince,  exclaimed, 
"  Ha  !  is  the  fool  really  come  ?     I  could  hardly  have  thought  it  possible." 

Ferdinand  was  received  at  the  gates  of  Bayonne  by  Duroc  and  Berthier, 
and  escorted  to  a  mean  house,  which  was  to  be  his  residence.  The  Emperor 
rode  from  the  chateau  where  he  lodged,  outside  the  town,  to  call  on  him,  saluted 
him,  invited  him  to  dinner,  and  talked  to  him  on  indifferent  matters.  After 
dinner,  Napoleon  dismissed  his  guest.  He  seemed  to  have  considered  Ferdinand 
not  worth  an  explanation,  but  retained  his  counsellor,  Canon  Escoiquiz,  leaving 
to  Savary  to  attend  the  Prince  to  his  hotel,  and  enlighten  him  as  to  the  inten- 
tions of  his  master. 

Napoleon  had  seen  the  character  of  the  old  Canon  at  a  glance.  He  saw 
that  he  was  vain,  consequential,  and  desirous  of  playing  the  part  of  a  states- 
man. He  resolved  to  dazzle  and  gain  him,  and,  through  him,  to  work  on  the 
feeble  mind  of  the  Prince. 

Escoiquiz  has  given  us  full  details  of  the  interview.  Bonaparte  assumed 
towards  him  his  familiar,  feline  manner,  occasionally  pinching  his  ear  when  he 
desired  to  impress  a  point.  He  treated  him  as  a  man  of  superior  intelligence, 
a  statesman  free  from  all  vulgar  prejudices.  He  began  by  informing  him  that 
his  purpose  was  to  dethrone  the  Bourbons,  and  to  give  to  Ferdinand,  as  com- 
pensation, the  little  realm  of  Etruria.  As  to  Spain,  it  was  to  form  an  indepen- 
dent power ;  he  would  not  retain  even  a  village  in  it.     Napoleon  went  on  to 


362         THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

assert  that  he  could  not  recognise  the  abdication  of  Charles  IV.,  wrung  from 
him  by  his  fears,  and  declared  what  was  true,  that  the  King  had  written  to  him 
protesting  that  the  abdication  was  involuntary;  a  retractation  wrung  from  him 
by  Murat. 

The  Canon  endeavoured  to  explain  that  the  King  was  weak,  and  under  the 
influence  of  the  Queen,  who  had  forced  him  to  send  the  protest.  Bonaparte 
interrupted  him  with  the  significant  question  : — 

"  Canon,  tell  me  whether  I  ought  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  interests 
of  my  house  and  of  my  empire  demand  that  the  Bourbons  shall  no  longer  reign 
in  Spain  ? 

"  It  is  impossible  for  you  not  to  see  that,  so  long  as  Bourbons  reign  in  Spain, 
I  shall  never  be  able  to  have  a  safe  and  sincere  alliance  with  that  country. 
They  will  feign  to  be  friends  so  long  as,  they  are  weak  ;  but  their  mortal  hatred 
will  declare  itself  as  soon  as  they  see  me  embarrassed  in  some  other  European 
war,  and  then  you  will  see  them  join  England,  and  my  worst  enemies.  .  .  . 
Never  can  I  count  upon  Spain  so  long  as  the  Bourbons  occupy  the  throne. 
The  strength  of  your  nation  has  always  been  considerable,  and  a  man  of  genius 
at  its  head  might  disturb  my  repose." 

Thereupon  Napoleon  pulled  the  Canon's  ear,  and  burst  into  a  loud  laugh. 
Escoiquiz  spoke  of  the  marriage  project  of  Ferdinand  with  one  of  Bonaparte's 
nieces. 

"  Canon,  you  are  talking  nonsense,"  he  said.  "  You  are  perfectly  aware  that 
a  woman  is  too  feeble  a  tie  to  fix  the  political  conduct  of  a  prince,  her  husband. 
Who  can  give  me  assurance  that  the  wife  of  Ferdinand  will  gain  an  ascendancy 
over  him  ?  Besides,  death  may  any  day  break  that  matrimonial  tie,  and  then 
the  old  hate  would  revive.  Allans  done,  chanoine !  vous  me  presentez  la  de 
veritables  ehdteaux  dEspagne.  Do  you  think  that  if  the  Bourbons  remain  on 
the  throne  I  can  be  as  sure  of  Spain  as  I  should  be  if  the  sceptre  were  placed  in 
the  hands  of  a  prince  of  my  own  family  .?"* 

Ferdinand  had  gone,  like  a  fool,  to  Bayonne  to  get  his  father's  abdication 
and  his  own  accession  recognised  by  Napoleon ;  but  Bonaparte  had  entrapped 
him  there,  in  order  to  extort  from  him  a  renunciation  of  the  crown  in  favour  of 
his  own  brother  Joseph,  at  present  King  of  Naples.  If  Ferdinand  had  con- 
sented, which  he  obstinately  refused  to  do,  then  the  abdication  of  Charles  IV. 
would  have  been  declared  valid.  But,  as  Ferdinand  remained  stubborn,  it  was 
necessary  to  proceed  to  further  measures.  Murat  was  instructed  to  send  the 
Prince  of  the  Peace  to  him  with  all  possible  speed.  On  reaching  Bayonne,  he 
was  received  by  the  Emperor  as  a  bosom  friend ;  and  immediately  after 
Napoleon  wrote  to  the  old  King  and  Queen,  to  request  that  they  also  would 
come  to  Bayonne,  as  he  was  desirous  of  arranging  the  affairs  in  dispute  with  the 
utmost  celerity,  so  as  to  place  the  Spanish  Monarchy  beyond  danger  from  the 
usurpation  of  the  Prince  of  the  Asturias. 

On  the  30th  April,  a  huge,  lumbering  carriage,  drawn  by  eight  Biscayan 
mules,  rolled  over  the  drawbridge  of  Bayonne.  It  contained  the  all  but 
imbecile  Monarch,  his  Queen,  his  youngest  son,  Francisco  de  Paolo,  and  some 

*  Escoiquiz,  Expose  de  V affaire  de  Bayonne,  Paris,  1816. 


NAPOLEON. 
From  a  coloured   engraving  by  Dahling. 


OF^HE  \ 

UNIVERSfTY/ 

OF  / 


SPAIN  365 

grandee  attendants.  Two  or  three  other  antiquated  chariots  discharged  their 
cargoes  of  chamberlains  and  ladies-in-waiting.  Godoy  welcomed  his  master 
and  mistress,  and  assured  them  that  the  intentions  of  the  Emperor  towards 
them  were  most  liberal.  This  assurance  was  soon  repeated  by  the  Emperor 
in  person,  who  declared  that  he  was  staying  in  Bayonne  only  to  serve  their 
Majesties.  The  childish  King  threw  himself,  weeping,  into  the  arms  of  Napoleon, 
and  called  him  his  best  friend  and  support. 

As  the  infirm  old  man  was  unable  to  walk  unassisted.  Napoleon  took  him 
under  the  arm  to  help  him  up  the  steps.  Charles  turned  to  the  Queen,  and  said, 
"  See,  Louisa  !  he  is  sustaining  me  !  " 

Whilst  this  poor  King,  thus  basely  betrayed,  was  surrendering  himself  to 
effusions  of  gratitude,  the  Emperor  was  observing  those  present.  Next  day  he 
wrote  to  Talleyrand  : — 

"  King  Charles  is  a  worthy  man.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  is  his  position 
or  circumstances  that  makes  me  think  it,  but  I  regard  him  as  a  frank  and  good 
man.  The  Queen  has  her  passions  and  her  story  written  on  her  face.  As  to 
the  Prince  of  the  Peace,  he  looks  like  a  bull.  He  is  tres  bete,  trh  mechant,  tres 
ennemi  de  la  France!' 

Napoleon  went  on  to  say  that  he  had  intercepted  and  read  a  private  letter 
of  the  Prince,  in  which  he  spoke  of  the  "accursed  French !" 

The  resentment  of  the  old  couple  against  their  son  had  increased.  They 
attributed  to  him  all  the  misfortunes  that  had  come  upon  them.  Ferdinand 
was  summoned  to  their  presence  before  Napoleon  ;  and  then  ensued  a  scene  to 
which  the  Emperor  afterwards  looked  back  with  disgust.  The  King  loaded  his 
son  with  bitter  reproaches,  and  insisted  on  his  surrendering  the  usurped  crown. 
Then  the  Queen  broke  out  into  invectives.  Losing  all  command  over  herself, 
this  royal  virago  foamed  at  the  mouth,  called  on  her  good  friend  the  Emperor 
to  send  him  to  the  guillotine,  and  had  the  indecency  to  declare  that  this  son, 
though  borne  by  her,  had  not  the  King  for  his  father.  The  Prince  answered 
with  firmness  and  respect,  but  absolutely  refused  to  yield.  Then  the  old  King, 
crippled  with  rheumatism,  raised  his  shaking  hand  over  him,  and  threatened 
him  with  his  cane. 

After  this  deplorable  scene  all  correspondence  between  them  passed  by 
means  of  letters.  Ferdinand  at  length  so  far  yielded,  that  he  agreed  to  resign 
the  crown,  on  condition  that  his  renunciation  was  made  publicly  at  Madrid,  and 
in  favour  of  his  father  only.     This  did  not  satisfy  Napoleon. 

At  this  juncture  Marbot,  the  aide-de-camp  of  Murat,  arrived  at  full  gallop 
from  Madrid,  to  announce  to  the  Emperor  that  an  insurrection  had  broken  out 
in  the  capital,  in  consequence  of  an  attempt  made  to  remove  the  remaining 
members  of  the  Royal  family.  It  had  been  suppressed  by  Murat  with  great 
severity,  but  the  loss  to  the  French  had  been  from  three  to  four  hundred  men. 
Murat  had  swept  together  a  hundred  of  the  citizens  next  day,  and,  without 
form  of  trial,  had  shot  them.  The  number  of  Spaniards  who  had  fallen  in  the 
fray  had  been  about  eight  hundred. 

The   Emperor  at  once  seized  on   this  outbreak  as  a  means  of  reducing 


366        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Ferdinand  to  submission.  King  Charles,  under  the  instigation  of  Napoleon, 
charged  his  son  with  having  provoked  the  riot,  and  told  him  he  would  be  held 
responsible  for  it.  Napoleon  himself  intervened,  as  the  young  man  remained 
motionless  and  silent,  with  lowered  eyes  : — 

"  Unless,"  said  he,  "  between  this  and  midnight  you  have  recognised  your 
father  as  King,  and  have  sent  information  to  this  effect  to  Madrid,  I  will  have 
you  dealt  with  as  a  rebel." 

This  is  what  the  Emperor  himself  states  in  his  correspondence ;  but  other 
testimonies  are  to  the  effect  that  Napoleon  placed  before  him  the  alternative  of 
instant  submission  or  of  being  shot.     The  terrified  Prince  at  last  yielded. 

On  the  6th  of  May,  Ferdinand  signed  a  formal  renunciation  of  the  crown. 
But,  on  the  previous  day,  Charles  had  also  surrendered  his  claims.  On  the 
loth  of  May,  Ferdinand's  renunciation  was  made  more  explicit  and  complete, 
and  he  was  granted  in  return  the  palace  of  Navarre,  and  an  income  of  600,000 
francs ;  Charles  was  accorded  the  chateaux  of  Chambord  and  Compiegne. 
The  deposed  and  disinherited  Princes  were  to  receive  in  all  ten  millions ;  "  but," 
as  Napoleon  wrote  to  Mollien  on  the  9th  of  May,  "  we  will  reimburse  ourselves 
out  of  Spain." 

This  was  not  all.  Ferdinand  was  not  suffered  to  reside  at  Navarre,  as  was 
promised,  but,  with  cruel  irony,  Napoleon  sent  him  off  to  live  under  the 
charge  of  Talleyrand.  Talleyrand  was  then  out  of  favour;  he  had  himself 
retired  in  disgust  from  the  thankless  task  of  giving  advice  which  was  never 
hearkened  to,  and  he  was  frightened  at  the  extravagance  of  the  schemes  that 
fired  the  mind  of  the  Emperor,  mad  with  ambition,  and  giddy  with  success. 

Napoleon  sent  the  Spanish  Princes  to  him,  escorted  by  a  body  of  gendarmes, 
and  he  wrote  to  him :  "I  do  not  wish  the  Princes  to  be  received  with  much 
pomp,  but  respectably,  and  that  you  do  your  utmost  to  amuse  them.  If  you 
have  a  theatre  at  Valengay,  it  will  be  well  to  have  a  few  actors  brought  there. 
Fetch  Madame  Talleyrand  and  some  four  or  five  ladies.  If  the  Prince  of  the 
Asturias  gets  attached  to  any  pretty  woman,  that  will  not  be  a  disadvantage,  if 
one  is  sure  of  her  ...  I  want  him  to  be  occupied  and  amused.  I  suppose  I 
ought  to  send  him  to  Bitche,  or  some  other  strong  fortress,  but  as  he  threw 
himself  into  my  arms,  and  has  promised  to  do  nothing  against  my  orders,  and 
all  goes  smoothly  in  Spain,  I  have  decided  to  send  him  into  the  country,  and  to 
have  him  watched  and  amused.  So  for  May  and  June,  till  the  affairs  of  Spain 
are  settled,  and  then  I  shall  be  able  to  judge  what  part  to  adopt." 

It  was  an  insult  thus  to  constitute  his  old  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  a 
gaoler  and  something  besides.  But  this  is  not  the  worst  incident  in  this  long 
story  of  deception  and  violence. 

How  the  whole  of  Spain  now  flamed  in  revolt ;  how  the  whole  army  of 
Dupont,  surrounded  by  the  insurgents,  was  forced  to  capitulate  at  Baylen,  and 
that  of  Junot  at  Cintra ;  how  the  French  were  expelled  from  Portugal  ;  and 
how  after  a  year  of  English  reverses.  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley,  with  more  adequate 
resources,  began  a  series  of  victories,  in  which  the  greatest  marshals  of  the 
Empire  were  beaten,  and  the  French  were  finally  forced  back  over  the  Pyrenees 


SPAIN  367 

— all  this  is  matter  of  history,  and  as  in  this  book  we  consider  only  Napoleon, 
and  deal  with  the  incidents  of  his  life,  so  far  alone  as  they  exhibit  his  character, 
and  reveal  the  workings  of  his  mind,  all  this  has  to  be  passed  over. 

No  wrong  that  any  man  does  is  sterile ;  it  provokes  another.  Far  be  it 
from  me  to  dispute  the  right  of  Napoleon  to  assume  the  headship  of  the  French 
nation,  and  to  crown  himself — that  is,  to  take  on  him  the  outward  and  visible 
sign  of  what  he  was  in  reality.  But  when  he  was  supreme  master  of  France, 
two  ways  were  open  to  him — the  maintenance  of  the  liberties  won  by  the 
Revolution,  and  the  giving  expression  in  himself  to  the  desires  of  the  people 
for  national  development,  unimpeded  by  antiquated  and  effete  bonds ;  for  that, 
peace  was  necessary.  But  he  rejected  this  course,  and  chose  the  opposite.  He 
stamped  out  every  form  of  liberty ;  he  crushed  the  peaceful  aspirations  of  the 
French  people,  and  waved  before  them  the  laurels  won  on  the  battle-field, 
instead  of  bidding  them  rest  and  be  happy  under  the  olive-branch.  His  path 
thenceforth  was  downward  ;  it  was  a  moral  declension  ;  and  every  evil  that  was 
done  drew  on  another,  which  itself  provoked  a  third. 

Had  he  made  France  peaceable  and  content,  checked  what  little  flutter 
for  military  glory  there  was  in  it,  and  maintained  an  unaggressive  policy  towards 
the  nations  round  about,  what  could  the  besotted  Bourbon  Princes  have  done 
against  a  man  who  was  the  representative  of  the  strength  and  greatness 
of  the  French  nation  ?  But  when  he  represented  only  its  evil  passions,  when 
his  throne  rested  on  the  bubble  Fame,  then  he  was  forced  to  secure  himself, 
by  levelling  all  Powers  that  menaced,  or  might  be  conceived  as  likely  to 
menace,  his  dynasty.  That  was  why,  in  self-defence,  he  was  constrained  to 
make  "  a  clean  sweep  "  of  the  royal  house  of  Spain,  and  enthrone  a  brother  in 
its  room. 

And  yet,  if  he  were  only  struggling  to  secure  his  crown,  and  to  found  a 
Napoleonic  dynasty,  a  weak  and  stupid  neutral  monarchy  on  his  frontiers  would 
have  been  a  security  against  aggression,  and  a  source  of  cheap  glory.  But 
Napoleon,  having  the  far  larger  designs  of  founding  a  European  Empire, 
was  resolved  to  be  master  of  the  resources  of  Spain,  and  to  put  a  speedy  end  to 
an  independence  that  was  incompatible  with  such  a  scheme.  Moreover,  Portugal 
could  only  be  controlled  from  -Spain,  and  Portugal  was  the  great  gap  in  the 
southern  continental  system  which  neutralised  its  efficacy  as  effectually  as  did 
Hamburg  in  the  north. 

And  there  is  some  sort  of  justification  to  be  offered  for  the  shameful  intrigue 
by  which  the  royal  family  was  inveigled  to  Bayonne.  The  Emperor  had  no 
desire  to  shed  blood  unnecessarily;  and  he  believed  that  by  this  means  he  had 
accomplished  his  end  almost  without  a  blow.  The  invasion  of  Spain,  the  over- 
throw of  the  monarchy,  and  the  elevation  of  Joseph  to  the  throne,  he  considered 
to  have  been  accomplished  with  the  least  possible  amount  of  violence.  He  was 
mistaken,  and  he  was  mistaken  because  unable  to  understand  the  moral  forces 
which  influence  men.  Patriotism  was  to  him  unintelligible.  He  had  felt  it 
once,  in  his  youth,  when  he  loved  Paoli ;  but  he  had  put  away  that  and  other 
-childish  things.     Military  glory,  greed  of  power,  of  wealth — these  were  forces 


368        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

that  he  could  understand  ;  but  none  of  the  noble  and  inspiring  emotions  which 
make  martyrs  and  patriots.  The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek:  in  place  of  respecting 
men,  he  despised  them.  Yet  for  this  there  is  an  excuse.  He  had  been  formed 
in  the  storm  of  the  Revolution,  wherein  the  basest  characters  rose  to  the  surface, 
and  the  vilest  deeds  were  committed  under  the  invocation  of  the  most  sacred 
principles.  He  had  thus,  at  a  very  early  age,  made  shipwreck  of  his  faith  in 
men  and  in  principles. 


XL 

A    TURNING-POINT 

(1808-9) 

IN  the  Arabian  Nights  is  the  story  of  a  fisherman  who  brought  up  a  jar  in  his 
net,  sealed  with  the  cabaHstic  sign  of  the  pentacle.  Despising  or  dis- 
regarding the  symbol,  he  knocked  out  the  cork,  whereupon  a  jin  that  had 
been  imprisoned,  escaped,  and  stood  before  him  as  a  mighty  spirit,  ready  to 
destroy  him. 

It  may  be  said  that  since  the  first  campaign  in  Italy,  Napoleon  had  been 
knocking  out  the  corks  of  the  nationalities,  breaking  their  seals,  and  unaware  of 
the  danger  to  himself,  had  been  liberating  the  National  Spirit  in  each,  hitherto 
confined  under  feudal  restraints.  The  time  when  these  emancipated  spirits 
would  become  a  menace  to  himself  had  now  arrived. 

In  the  story,  the  fisherman  induces  the  jin  to  re-enter  the  jar,  whereupon  he 
replants  the  seal,  and  all  is  as  it  was  before.  But  Napoleon  had  contrived  to  do 
this  with  France  alone,  with  a  spirit  not  of  his  own  liberating. 

And  he  was  the  last  to  understand,  to  suspect  what  he  had  done.  Who,  for 
instance,  could  have  dreamed  that  behind  the  seal  of  the  Spanish  crown  was 
the  fiery,  intense  patriotism  of  the  individual  Spaniard,  that  would  burst  forth 
and  destroy  his  armies,  and  roll  back  his  conquest,  and  send  reeling  from  his 
throne  the  brother  he  had  placed  upon  it  ? 

Napoleon  had  encountered  nothing  of  the  kind  in  Italy,  in  Naples,  in  the 
Netherlands,  in  Austria,  and  in  Germany.  But  the  patient  endurance  and 
dogged  resistance  of  the  Teuton  races  was  something  different.  The  Spaniards 
resisted  as  individuals  without  troubling  about  their  government ;  whereas  the 
Teuton  looked  to  his  government  to  organise  resistance.  It  is  a  law  of  Nature 
that  force  is  imperishable.  It  may  alter  its  character,  its  name,  its  mode  of 
manifestation,  but  it  never  dies.  And  it  is  a  law  of  God  that  every  violence 
done  correlates  itself  into  a  force  chastising  the  wrong-doer. 

The  violence  done  to  the  Spanish  nation  by  Napoleon  had  produced  unex- 
pected results.  The  organisation  of  opposition  was  decentralised  into  local 
juntas  that  were  absolutely  incompetent.  The  only  effective  resistance  possible 
was  that  of  guerilla  warfare,  and  to  that  the  Spaniards  had  recourse.  It  was  a 
nation  in  arms  that  the  French  had  to  contend  with. 
2   B  369 


370        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  revolt  broke  out  everywhere  simultaneously.  It  was  without  leaders,  it 
was  devoid  of  plan,  but  it  was  at  once  succcessful. 

The  Emperor  could  not  comprehend  it.  So  little  did  he  dread  it,  that  he 
separated  his  columns,  and  sent  them  through  the  land,  without  providing  that 
they  should  maintain  contact  with  each  other  or  with  their  base.  So  little  doubt 
had  he  that  his  trained  soldiers  could  disperse  the  peasants  who  had  flown  to 
arms,  that  he  left  Bayonne,  to  make  a  progress  through  the  south  of  France. 
Of  Dupont  he  wrote  : — 

"  Without  a  doubt,  even  with  twenty  thousand  men,  he  can  kick  over  all 
opposition." 

"  There  is  nothing  to  be  feared  on  the  side  where  is  Marshal  Bessieres,  nor 
in  the  north  of  Castille,  nor  in  Leon  ;  there  is  nothing  to  be  feared  in  Aragon 
— Saragossa  will  fall  sooner  or  later ;  there  is  nothing  to  be  feared  in  Catalonia  ; 
there  is  nothing  to  be  feared  as  to  the  communications  between  Burgos  and 
Bayonne,  .  .  .  The  only  risky  point  is  where  Dupont  is,  and  he  has  far 
more  than  enough  to  produce  grand  results.  .  .  .  With  only  twenty-one 
thousand  men,  he  would  have  more  than  eighty  chances  in  a  hundred  in 
his  favour."* 

The  rising  in  Spain,  more  especially  the  siege  of  Saragossa,  produced 
immense  excitement  in  Germany.  There  it  was  not  possible  for  the  people  to 
rise  en  masse,  the  French  had  too  strong  a  force  in  the  land ;  but,  secretly, 
everywhere  the  people  prepared  for  a  resurrection.  And  in  Austria,  where 
Feudalism  maintained  its  paralysing  hold  on  the  heart  of  the  nations  that  were 
combined  under  the  Imperial  Crown,  a  spirit  of  enthusiasm,  of  devotion,  of 
resentment,  began  to  rise. 

Hitherto  Napoleon  had  fought  governments ;  now  he  was  to  encounter 
nations,  and  that,  moreover,  precisely  at  the  time  when  he  had  denationalised 
his  army,  of  which  only  a  nucleus  was  French,  but  the  bulk  a  composite  mass  of 
contingents  from  Italy,  Naples,  Holland,  Belgium,  the  Rhenish  States,  Switzer- 
land, the  Hanse  Towns,  Poland,  and  Spain. 

This  conglomerate  mass,  differing  in  tongues,  blood,  religion,  actuated  by 
national  antipathies,  was  treated  as  a  machine :  no  motives  were  supplied  to 
animate  it,  save  glory  and  rapine.  It  was  impelled  into  the  field  by  vicious 
springs  of  action  ;  and  now  it  was  to  encounter  hosts  animated  by  the  noblest 
of  all — love  of  country,  and  love  of  freedom. 

A  strange  change  had  come  over  Europe.  The  force  of  the  Revolution,  the 
spirit  of  all  that  was  good  in  it,  had  left  France,  and  had  found  its  resting-place 
among  her  bitter  enemies.  Napoleon,  cast  up  upon  a  throne  by  the  wave  of 
Revolution,  had  become  a  tyrant  a  hundred  times  more  ruthless  than  the  feudal 
kings  whom  he  struck  from  their  thrones.  And  now,  everywhere  throughout 
Europe,  the  enlightened,  the  educated,  the  broad  and  liberal  minds,  saw  the 
cause  of  Reform  identified  with  that  of  emancipation  from  the  domination  of 
the  new  Caesar;  and  their  rights  as  citizens  dependent  on  their  assertion  of 
national  rights. 

*  Notes  sjtr  la  position  acttielle  de  Vannee  d^Espagne,  21  July,  1808. 


A   TURNING-POINT 


371 


Napoleon  still  employed  the  old  terms,  coined  at  the  Revolution,  once  full  of 
explosive  force,  but  he  used  them  to  disguise  acts  that  were  the  reverse  of  what 
they  signified.  Thus,  when  he  erected  new  Bastilles,  he  declared  that  he  did 
this  in  behalf  of  Liberty  and  Fraternity.  When  he  created  a  new  order  of 
nobility,  he  declared  that  it  was  to  throw  up  a  barrier  against  the  feudal 
aristocracy ;  when  he  declared  war,  he  asserted  that  it  was  in  the  interests  of 
peace ;  when  he  came  to  a  people,  promising  emancipation,  it  was  to  bind  it  in 
chains  of  iron  ;  and  when  he  issued  a  decree  confiscating  estates,  and  sentencing 


ARC    DE   TRIOMPHE    DE    L  ETOILE, 


to  the  scaffold  some  of  the  richest  grandees  of  Spain,  he  entitled  it  an 
amnesty. 

If  we  look  at  the  quick  succession  of  his  astounding  victories,  we  can  explain 
them  without  according  to  him  so  miraculous  a  genius.  They  were  due,  un- 
doubtedly, in  large  measure,  to  his  great  military  abilities,  but  in  quite  as  large  a 
measure  to  the  impotence  of  those  opposed  to  him.  The  old  generals  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  complained  that  he  did  not  fight  according  to  rule. 
Rule  with  them  had  become  everything,  smothering  common  sense  and  intelli- 
gence. 

The  Austrian  generals  sent  against  him  in  Italy  were  hampered  by  plans  laid 


372         THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

down  for  their" conduct  by  the  Aulic  Council.  Their  initiative  was  taken  from 
them,  they  were  made  into  puppets,  pulled  by  wires,  and  the  pedants  at  Vienna 
touched  the  keys  which  were  to  make  them  move.  From  the  outset  Napoleon 
would  have  none  of  this.  He  took  no  notice  of  the  instructions  of  the  Direc- 
tory, when  to  disobey  was  to  run  the  risk  of  the  guillotine.  The  Czar 
Alexander,  even  when  nominally  in  command  of  his  Russians,  had  to  reckon 
with  his  generals.  The  King  of  Prussia,  on  the  Thuringian  frontier,  was  but 
one  among  several,  of  whom  the  majority  were  old  men,  whose  only  notion  of 


ARC    DE   TRIOMPHE   DU   CARROUSEL. 


war  was  what  they  remembered  to  have  learnt  under  Frederick  the  Great ;  and 
he  himself  was  more  concerned  how  many  buttons  were  on  a  soldier's  coat  than 
how  his  battalions  were  to  be  disposed.  When  Napoleon  was  met  by  a  man  of 
ability  at  Marengo,  he  was  saved  from  defeat  only  by  accident ;  and  when  he 
encountered  Bennigsen,  a  man  of  second-rate  ability,  at  Eylau,  he  was 
defeated. 

Bennigsen  was  a  far  abler  man  than  Melas.  He  out-manoeuvred  Napoleon, 
and  won  one  battle,  and  lost  another.  Melas  was  out-manoeuvred  all  round  ;  he 
won  one  battle,  and  then  lost  it  again. 

Wellington,  in  the  Peninsula,  was  given  a  free  hand,  whereas  the  French 


A   TURNING-POINT  373 

commanders  were  hampered  by  distant  authority.  Consequently  he  enjoyed 
precisely  that  advantage  which  had  been  enjoyed  by  Bonaparte  in  his  Italian 
campaign. 

The  great  secret  of  Napoleon's  success  lies  in  this  :  he  knew  what  he  wanted 
to  do,  and  he  did  it,  without  any  fear  of  those  behind  his  back  at  Paris.  He  had 
generals,  marshals,  under  him,  but  he  rarely  called  them  to  a  council  of  war. 
What  he  required  done,  that  he  ordered  them  to  execute,  and  it  was  this  supreme 
control  he  exercised  that  enabled  him  with  such  rapidity  to  carry  out  his 
manoeuvres ;  outflanking  the  enemy,  or  breaking  their  centre,  then  throwing 
himself  first  on  one  wing  and  then  the  other  with  concentrated  force. 

But  not  only  were  the  generals  opposed  to  Napoleon  in  the  field  inferior  in 
ability,  and  hampered  by  their  instructions,  but  the  Kings  and  Emperors,  whose 
ofBcers  they  were,  were  infirm  of  purpose,  timid,  and  mutually  jealous. 

In  the  splendid  campaign  in  Italy  that  opened  to  him  his  career,  Napoleon 
could  not  have  achieved  his  success  had  not  the  King  of  Sardinia  and  Piedmont 
lost  heart  at  the  first  reverse,  and  basely  abandoned  his  fortresses  to  the  French, 
so  as  to  allow  Bonaparte  to  advance  against  Austria  without  fear  about  his  con- 
nexions with  his  base. 

In  the  campaign  against  Austria,  which  concluded  with  the  treaty  of 
Presbqrg,  Prussia  held  aloof  Bonaparte  had  secured  the  feeble-minded 
Maximilian  Joseph  of  Bavaria,  who  amused  his  Court  by  farcical  tales,*  and  left 
the  management  of  the  policy  of  his  country  to  his  Ministers,  who  were  in 
Napoleon's  pay.  In  Wurtemberg  reigned  the  little  tyrant  Frederick,  of  whom 
the  Edinburgh  Review  remarked,  after  his  death,  that  he  resembled  nothing 
more  than  the  little  devil  of  Rabelais,  who  was  capable  of  no  greater  achieve- 
ment than  raising  a  storm  over  a  parsley-bed.  He  entered  heart  and  soul  into 
alliance  with  Napoleon,  to  win  extension  of  dominion  and  a  royal  crown. 
Baden,  the  jackal  of  France  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  as  it  was  the  jackal 
of  Prussia  towards  its  close,  was  ruled  by  Charles  Frederick  Nestor,  who  was 
old,  born  in  1738,  and  too  small  a  Prince  to  exercise  any  considerable  power. 

Francis  II.,  Emperor  of  Austria,  exhibited  the  weakness  of  his  character 
after  Austerlitz,  when  he  agreed  to  the  scandalous  Treaty  of  Presburg,  at  a  moment 
when  his  adversary  was  in  extreme  danger,  with  the  Archduke  Charles  hurrying 
up  at  the  head  of  80,000  men,  to  menace  his  flank  and  rear,  the  Archduke 
Ferdinand  approaching  at  the  head  of  the  Bohemian  levies,  the  Russian  reserves 
coming  to  the  relief,  and  when  Prussia,  with  100,000  men,  was  preparing  to  pour 
into  Franconia,  and  cut  off  communication  with  the  Rhine.  When,  moreover, 
bankruptcy  was  imminent  in  France,  and  only  prevented  by  this  ignominious 
peace,  which  a  monarch  with  a  soul  above  that  possessed  by  a  fly,  would  have 
blushed  to  sign.  Francis  had  everything  to  gain  by  delay,  and  he  threw  away  a 
splendid  chance  through  feebleness  of  character  and  deficiency  in  foresight. 

Nor  was  Prussia  any  happier  in  Frederick  William  III.  ;  a  poor  creature, 
who  could  hardly  be  stirred  to  energy  by  the  exhortations  of  his  heroic  Queen, 

*  He  was  a  great  authority  on  the  biographies  of  actresses  and  the  genealogies  of  their  lovers,  was 
a  bon-vivant,  and  very  extravagant  in  his  tastes. — Memoirs  of  the  Bar-ones s  Oberkirch. 


374 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


a  man   the  pettiness  of  whose  mind  provoked  contemptuous   comment   from 
Napoleon. 

In  Russia,  reigned  at  first  the  madman,  Paul,  whose  crazy  brain  was  in- 
fatuated with  enthusiasm  for  the  great  Bonaparte  ;  and  when,  for  the  good  of  his 
country,  he  was  assassinated,  his  successor,  Alexander,  was  young,  inexperienced, 
without  fixed  principles,  governed  by  the  humour  into  which  he  was  thrown  by 
the  niggardliness  of  England  or  the  caresses  of  Napoleon.  He  w^as,  moreover, 
an  enthusiast,  a  dreamer ;  well-meaning,  indeed,  but  lacking  in  shrewdness. 
This  put  him  at  the  mercy  of  such  a  schemer  as  Napoleon.     His  instability  of 


^^1 


THREE   STAGES    IN    THE   CAREER   OF    NAPOLEON. 
From  an  engraving,  1S29. 


purpose  and  his  impressionability  prevented  him  from  realising,  or  even  retaining, 
the  lofty  ideals  of  his  youth. 

In  Sweden,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  chivalrous  and  bold,  was  without  political 
sagacity,  and  though  resolute  in  his  opposition  to  Napoleon,  was  not  supported 
by  his  people,  who  were  inclined  for  a  French  alliance.  He  had  not  the  ability 
to  take  the  part  which  his  heart  told  him  was  that  which  was  right  for  him  to 
adopt.  Russia  deprived  him  of  Finland,  and  he  endeavoured  to  indemnify  him- 
self for  his  loss  by  an  invasion  of  Norway.     This  led  to  his  deposition. 

In  Spain,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  crown  was  worn  by  a  fool,  with  a 
fool  for  a  son.  In  Portugal,  the  Queen  was  deranged,  and  under  restraint. 
In    Naples,   the    King,    Ferdinand,    a    man    of  debased    mind,  was   governed 


A   TURNING-POINT 


375 


by  his  unscrupulous  Queen.  His  perfidy  lost  him  the  confidence  of  his 
subjects. 

There  was,  consequently,  not  a  single  able  man  on  the  throne  in  any  Empire 
or  Kingdom,  capable  of  making  head  against  Napoleon.* 

In  the  first  period  of  his  career,  Napoleon  achieved  great  successes  with 
comparatively  small  forces  at  his  disposal. 

In  the  second  period  of  his  career  as  a  general,  he  laid  especial  stress  on 
numbers.  The  heterogeneous  nature  of  his  armyj^took  from  it  the  elan  that 
his  purely  French  troops  had  possessed  ;  and  he  endeavoured  to  overwhelm  his 


S.    lAGO    EXPELLING    NAPOLEON    FROM    SPAIN. 
From  a  contemporary  caricature. 


Opponents  by  masses,  rather  than  bewilder  them  by  rapid  evolutions.  The  in- 
surrection in  Spain  put  a  severe  strain  on  his  resources.  There  were  6o,ocx) 
men  on  the  Ebro  with  Joseph,  about  20,000  in  Catalonia,  and  now  he  resolved 
to  bring  200,000  more  from  his  Grand  Army,  who  had  fought  under  him  in 
Prussia  and  Poland,  the  more  effectually  to  annihilate  the  undisciplined,  ill- 
armed,  inexperienced  guerillas  who  had  humbled  his  eagles. 

In  order  to  hold  the  Prussians  in  check  he  was  forced  to  call  out  another 
levy  in  France  of  160,000,  an  anticipation  by  sixteen  months  of  their  time; 
and  to  excuse  this  he  said,  "  Frenchmen,  I  have  but  one  end  in  view — your 
happiness,  and  the  security  of  your  children.     You  have  often  told  me  that  you 

*  LARPENT's/(7«r«a/,  ed.  1883,  P-  227. 


376        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

loved  me ;  I  shall  recpgnise  the  sincerity  of  your  sentiments  in  the  readiness 
with  which  you  second  projects  so  intimately  allied  to  your  dearest  interests,  to 
the  honour  of  the  Empire,  and  to  my  glory." 

There  was  cruel  mockery  in  these  words.  For  the  security  of  the  children 
of  France,  he  swept  them  together,  and  sent  them  to  perish  on  the  battle-field ; 
and  for  what  advantage  to  France?  None  whatever.  The  deposition  of  a 
royal  house,  and  the  elevation  of  Joseph  to  the  throne,  in  no  way  concerned 
the  interests  of  any  Frenchman  save  Napoleon  only. 

Of  the  madness  of  the  Spanish  enterprise  he  had  received  full  warning. 
Fouche,  his  police  minister,  had  ventured  to  utter  his  opinion  :  "  Let  Portugal 
accept  her  fate.  She  is  little  better  than  an  English  colony.  But  the  King 
of  Spain  has  given  you  no  cause  to  complain  ;  he  has  been  the  humblest  of 
your  prefects.  Fleets,  troops,  seaports,  money — all  have  been  placed  at  your 
disposal.     You  cannot  get  more  from  Spain  if  you  take  the  country  from  him." 

Napoleon  replied,  "  My  stake  is  immense.  I  will  unite  Spain  for  ever  to 
the  destinies  of  France.  Remember,  the  sun  never  sets  on  the  empire  of 
Charles  IV." 

Fouche  cautioned  him  not  to  rely  too  much  on  the  sincerity  of  the  Czar 
Alexander.     "  Bah ! "  answered  the  Emperor.     "  You  talk  like  a  minister  of" 
police,  whose  business  teaches  him  that  there  is  no  sincerity  in  the  world." 

Talleyrand  had  also  endeavoured  to  turn  the  wilful  man  from  his  project. 

But  his  words  had  been  thrown  away  upon  one  whom  success  had  driven 
mad.  Napoleon,  on  hearing  him,  lost  all  command  over  his  temper,  and  called 
him  "  Traitor  "  to  his  face.  But  that  imperturbable,  impassive  mask  betrayed 
no  more  emotion  than  one  of  the  marble  statues  in  the  Tuileries  garden. 
Talleyrand  looked  placidly  out  of  the  window  at  the  shrubs  and  statues,  then 
went  home,  shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  said,  "  This  is  the  beginning  of  the 
end." 

On  the  Qth  of  August,  1807,  just  eighteen  days  before  the  conclusion  of  the 
Treaty  of  Fontainebleau,  which  was  the  preparatory  step  to  the  greater,  but 
not  mxore  iniquitous  scheme,  Talleyrand  had  retired  from  office  as  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  and  the  obsequious  and  inferior  Champagny  succeeded  him. 

From  this  moment,  nearly  all  political  wisdom  and  moderation  disappeared 
from  the  councils  of  Bonaparte. 

It  was  eminently  characteristic  of  Napoleon  that  after  the  failure  of  the 
Spanish  enterprise,  he  endeavoured  to  cast  the  blame  of  its  suggestion  and 
inception  on  Talleyrand,  the  man  whose  clear  judgment  had  foreseen  the 
fatality  of  the  step,  and  had  pronounced  against  it ;  and  who,  for  so  doing,  had 
forfeited  his  portfolio. 

Of  the  effrontery  with  which  he  manufactured  or  altered  news,  misstated 
facts,  or  gave  them  a  false  colour,  mention  has  already  been  made ;  but  at  this 
point  an  example  may  be  given,  as  belonging  to  the  period  when  he  was 
massing  his  forces  on  the  frontier  and  on  the  Ebro  for  the  complete  reduction  of 
Spain. 

Before  a  blow  had  been  struck,  on  the  19th  November,  1808,  he  wrote  to 


A   TURNING-POINT  377 

Champagny,  his  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  :  "  Send  off  a  courier  with  intelli- 
gence, who  can  spread  the  tidings  that  Spain  is  subjected,  or  on  the  point  of 
being  so,  and  that  80,000  Spaniards  have  been  killed."  To  augment  the  effect 
produced  by  this  false  tidings,  he  enjoined  Fouche  to  get  inserted  in  the  news- 
papers of  Paris,  Holland,  and  Germany  a  series  of  articles,  announcing — first, 
great  preparations  made  by  Murat  for  a  descent  on  Sicily  ;  then  his  disem- 
barkation in  the  island ;  and  finally,  accounts  of  his  great  successes  there. 

"  Enter  into  details,"  he  wrote ;  "  say  that  King  Joachim  has  landed  at  the 
head  of  30,000  men,  and  that  he  has  left  the  Regency  to  his  wife,  and  that  the 
disembarkation  took  place  at  Pharos  ...  in  order  that  this  may  be  believed  in 
London,  and  that  it  may  alarm  them."  All  this,  which  was  pure  invention,  was 
to  occupy  a  dozen  articles. 

To  the  great  disappointment  of  Murat,  he  had  not  been  appointed  King  of 
Spain,  but  Joseph  had  been  moved,  very  reluctantly  on  his  part,  to  Madrid,  and 
Murat  had  been  elevated  from  Grand  Duke  of  Berg  to  be  King  of  Naples. 
Joseph  had  been  obliged  to  fly  from  Madrid,  after  a  residence  there  of  eight 
days  only.  In  vain  did  he  tell  his  brother  that  the  Spaniards  would  not  receive 
him,  that  they  resented  his  intrusion  among  them  ;  the  iron  will  of  Napoleon 
insisted  on  his  occupying  the  rickety  throne.  With  his  huge  armies,  Napoleon 
easily  defeated  the  Spanish  insurgents,  occupied  Madrid,  and  reinstalled  his 
brother  (December,  1808). 

The  reduction  of  the  Spaniards  had  been  no  difficult  matter ;  they  had 
shown  extraordinary  activity  with  their  legs,  and  an  absolute  incapacity  for 
concerted  action.  Behind  walls  they  fought  with  great  tenacity  of  purpose,  but 
were  scattered  like  chaff  in  the  field.  Their  juntas  wrangled,  and  the  officials 
pocketed  the  money  sent  from  England  to  supply  the  armies  with  munitions 
and  pay.  For  three  months  Napoleon  was  in  Spain,  and  effected  very  little. 
He  had  hoped  to  have  done  with  the  insurgents  as  he  had  done  with  the 
Prussians.  The  campaign  against  the  latter  had  been  virtually  ended  in  eight 
days,  because  he  had  then  been  pitted  against  an  army,  and  an  army  only.  But 
with  the  Spaniards  there  was  not  an  army,  there  were  only  swarms,  and  the 
swarms  assembled  everywhere,  and  as  often  as  dispersed  assembled  again.  No 
glory  was  to  be  won  in  Spain,  no  great  coups  de  theatre  produced  ;  he  was 
disappointed  in  not  being  able  to  surround  and  annihilate  the  little  English 
army  under  Sir  John  Moore,  and  did  not  take  part  in  the  long  pursuit  to 
Corunna,  but  had  horses  put  to  his  travelling-carriage,  and  on  the  17th  January, 
1 809,  he  left  Valladolid  for  Paris. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Napoleon  still  held  to  the  belief  that  his 
mission  was  divine.  In  the  Souper  de  Beaucaire  he  had  hinted  that  power  was 
its  own  justification  ;  and  this  principle  was  the  only  one  that  remained  in 
possession.  He  was  quite  in  accord  with  the  saying  of  Champagny,  "What 
policy  counsels,  that  justice  authorises." 

The  conviction  that  all  force  came  from  God,  and  that  its  exercise  carried 
with  it  its  own  justification,  was  deeply  rooted  in  his  mind. 

In  the  Catechisme  Imperial^  drawn  up  under  his  direction  for  use  in  the 


\  ^ 


37-8    THE  LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE 

schools  of  France,  the  same  idea  is  thrown  into  shape,  suitable  for  impressing  it 
on  the  minds  and  consciences  of  the  children. 

"  Q.  What  are,  in  particular,  our  duties  towards  our  Emperor,  Napoleon  ? 

''A.  We  owe  him  love,  respect,  obedience,  fidelity,  military  service,  all  the 
tributes  ordered  for  the  defence  of  the  Empire  and  throne,  and  fervent  prayers 
for  his  welfare  and  for  the  prosperity  of  the  State. 

"  Q.  Why  are  we  bound  to  show  these  duties  to  the  Emperor? 

''A.  Because  God  has  established  him  as  our  Sovereign,  and  has  rendered 
him  His  image  here  on  earth,  overwhelming  him  with  gifts,  in  peace,  and  in  war. 
To  honour  and  to  serve  our  Emperor  is,  therefore,  to  honour  and  to  serve  God 
Himself. 

"g.  Are  there  not  particular  reasons  which  should  strongly  attach  us  to 
Napoleon  L,  our  Emperor? 

''A.  Yes,  for  it  is  he  whom  God  has  raised  up  to  restore  the  holy  religion  of 
our  fathers,  and  to  be  its  protector.  He  has  brought  back  and  preserved  public 
order  by  his  profound  and  active  wisdom,  and  he  defends  the  State  by  his 
mighty  arm  ;  he  is  the  anointed  of  the  Lord,  by  the  consecration  he  has 
received  from  the  sovereign  pontiff.  .  .  .  Those  who  fail  in  their  duties  towards 
our  Emperor,  will  render  themselves  deserving  of  eternal  damnation." 

When  Napoleon  caused  this  to  be  taught  in  every  school,  there  was  in  him 
no  hypocrisy.  It  was  in  fact  his  one  conviction,  not  opinion.  And  this  convic- 
tion explains  much  that  would  otherwise  be  dark  in  his  conduct.  He  was 
strongly,  vehemently  opposed  to  cruelty,  to  the  shedding  of  blood  unnecessarily, 
but  he  was  absolutely  unscrupulous  about  shedding  any  amount  of  blood  to 
carry  out  his  purposes,  for  these  purposes  were  divine  in  their  conception,  and 
sanctioned  from  on  high  in  their  execution.  Men  were  born  and  sent  into  this 
world  and  grew  up  to  be  his  instruments,  to  carry  out  his  will,  which  was  but 
another  word  for  the  will  of  God.  He  believed  himself  to  be  the  prophet 
of  God  as  certainly  as  did  Mohammed,  and  that  his  wars  were  sacred  as  those 
conducted  by  the  prophet  of  Mecca.  He  was  cruel  in  the  crushing  out  of 
opposition.  "  Fusillez  !  fusillez  ! "  was  his  repeated  order  to  Joseph  and  to  his 
generals.  Whoever  opposed  him  was  a  rebel ;  that  he  fought  for  his  country 
was  nothing.  "Fusillez!  fusillez!  he  is  a  bandit!"  He  treated  those  who 
resisted  his  will  with  outrage,  and  covered  them  with  insult,  because  they 
opposed  the  will  of  Heaven,  operating  through  him.  And  all  means  were 
sanctioned  by  the  end  he  had  in  view.  He  kept  no  faith  with  his  enemies,  he 
broke  treaties  as  soon  as  he  made  them,  and  considered  himself  justified  in  so 
doing  because  he  was  swept  forward  by  the  breath  of  God.  Every  exercise  of 
power  opened  the  door  to  another  explosion  of  force ;  and  force  was  the  mani- 
festation of  God,  and  he  who  had  the  power  was  the  minister  of  God  to  use 
what  was  given  to  him.  That  Napoleon  was  a  religious  man  at  heart  has  often 
been  asserted.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  with  him  religion  was  a  conviction 
that  he  was  the  anointed  of  God.  Apart  from  himself,  in  the  political  sphere, 
he  could  not  conceive  of  God  acting.  God  swept  away  men  by  plague,  by 
famine,  by  great  cataclysms,  with  pitiless  severity.     War  was  but  another  phase 


K^A 


THE   TRIUMPH    OF    NAPOLEON. 
From  the  group  by  Cartot  on  the  Triumphal  Arch  of  I'Etoile. 


A   TURNING-POINT  381 

of  the  exercise  of  this  divine  force  for  the  destruction  of  men,  for  the  carrying 
out  of  His  divine  purposes. 

There  was  much  in  the  adulation  wherewith  he  was  received,  that  was 
calculated  to  foster  this  belief.  Poets,  painters,  statesmen,  princes,  the  very 
people,  combined  to  laud  him  as  though  he  were  superhuman.  His  rapid 
elevation,  his  extraordinary  success,  the  manner  in  which  difficulties  dis- 
appeared before  him,  all  helped  on  in  the  same  direction.  As  the  Calvinist, 
who  feels  his  calling  and  election  sure,  holds  himself  to  be  morally  impeccable, 
and  theologically  infallible,  so  was  it  with  Napoleon  ;  the  consciousness  of 
genius,  of  power,  vv^as  in  him  an  evidence  that  he  was  subject  to  a  supernatural 
afflatus,  or,  at  least,  was  a  chosen  instrument  ordained  to  create  a  world-empire, 
of  which  he  should  be  the  temporal  and  even  spiritual  head  ;  for,  indeed,  in  his 
€yes,  the  Pope  was  merely  his  Minister  for  Religious  Affairs,  to  be  browbeaten, 
driven  along  his  course,  deposed  if  needs  be  ;  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  under  him- 
self, as  the  Vicegerent  of  God. 

From  the  moment  of  his  coronation,  we  must  not  look  at  the  representa- 
tions of  him  on  canvas,  in  sculpture,  or  in  medal,  as  genuine  portraiture.  He 
was  deified,  he  was  purposely  likened  in  his  features  to  Augustus.  Look  at  the 
studies  of  the  First  Consul  and  then  at  those  of  the  Emperor,  and  you  see  at 
once  that  every  artist  after  the  coronation  has  taken  on  him  the  task  of  giving 
Olympian  traits  to  the  features  of  the  new  Caesar.  The  hour  for  free  inter- 
pretation was  over.  Ave  Caesar!  The  master  dictated  his  orders  to  his  artists 
as  he  did  to  everyone  else,  and  the  image  of  Napoleon,  whether  represented  by 
the  official  painters  or  sculptors,  or  by  the  humble  illustrator  of  chap-books, 
must  thenceforth  be  pictured,  regardless  of  truth,  according  to  certain  con- 
ventional formulae  destined  to  strike  the  imagination  of  the  public,  and  to 
dazzle  posterity.  "  It  was  necessary,"  says  M.  Frederic  Masson,  "  that  the 
Sovereign,  the  founder  of  the  fourth  dynasty,  should  appear  beautiful,  serene, 
grave — beautiful  with  a  beauty  more  than  human,  like  to  the  deified  Caesars,  or 
to  the  gods  of  whom  they  were  the  likenesses." 

Nevertheless,  it  still  happened  that  a  few  conscientious  artists  made  hasty 
sketches  of  his  face,  and  these  are  of  incomparably  higher  iconographic  value 
than  the  official  portraits,  which  represent  the  ideal,  but  hardly  at  all  the 
actual  man. 


XLI 

HOLLAND 

( I 806-10) 

IT  would  occupy  much  paper  to  enter  into  an  account  of  the  conduct  of 
Napoleon  towards  his  brothers,  and  it  will  suffice  to  give,  as  an  example, 
the  manner  in  which  he  treated  Louis,  whom  he  had  created  King  of  Holland. 
Lucien  had  soon  found  out  that,  to  retain  self-respect,  he  must  break  with 
Napoleon.  Lucien  was  sour-tempered,  querulous,  and  envious  by  nature,  and 
could  ill  brook  that  his  brother  should  take  his  own  course,  without  consulting 
him.     When  he  was  dictated  to — then  in  a  huff  he  withdrew. 

Napoleon  had  called  a  good  many  Republics  into  existence,  and  then  had 
demolished  them,  or  converted  them  into  kingdoms  for  the  members  of  his 
family. 

Switzerland  had  been  formed  into  the  Helvetian  Republic  in  1798,  and  in 
1803  was  transformed  into  the  Swiss  Confederation.  The  Pays  de  Vaud  had 
been  elevated  into  an  independent  Republique  Lemanique  in  1798,  and  the 
Valais  into  another  in  1802.  The  Ionian  Islands  had  been  constituted  the 
Republique  des  Sept  Isles  in  1800,  and  then  abandoned  to  Russia  in  1807. 
Italy  had  been  cut  into  several  Republics;  the  Transpadean  had  been  intended 
to  be  formed  out  of  Lombardy,  but  in  1797  it  was  joined  to  the  Cispadean 
Republic,  founded  in  1796;  to  this  the  Venetian  provinces  and  Roman  Lega- 
tions were  united,  and  in  1805  constituted  the  Kingdom  of  Italy.  The 
Ligurian  Republic  was  formed  in  1797,  and  in  1805  was  annexed  to  France. 
The  Roman  Republic  was  founded  in  1798,  but  again  fell  under  the  Pope,  to 
be  once  more  taken  from  him,  and  annexed  to  the  Kingdom  of  Italy.  The 
Parthenopean  Republic  was  shaped  out  of  Naples  in  1799,  and  afterwards  con- 
verted into  a  kingdom  for  Joseph  Bonaparte.  The  little  Republic  of  Lucca 
was  transformed  into  a  Principality  for  Elise  Bonaparte.  Holland  had  been  re- 
modelled as  the  Batavian  Republic  in  1795;  in  1806,  it  was  raised  to  be  a 
Kingdom  by  Napoleon,  who  appointed  his  brother  Louis  the  first  King. 

Louis  accepted  his  nomination  with  great  reluctance,  and  remonstrated  with 
Napoleon,  who  curtly  answered,  "  It  is  better  to  die  a  King  than  live  a  Prince." 

Louis  was  amiable  in  character,  his  manners  affable.  Overawed  by  his 
brother,  not  daring  to  refuse,  he  submitted,  and  went  in  a  dispirited  mood  to 

382 


HOLLAND  383 

Holland,  together  with  his  wife,  Hortense  de  Beauharnais,  Josephine's  daughter 
by  her  first  husband,  with  whom  he  was  not  happy. 

Louis  entered  on  his  new  duties  with  the  best  intentions,  and  he  strove  to 
benefit  the  country  over  which  he  had  been  set  to  reign.  He  felt  acutely  when 
the  Dutch  refused  him  the  marks  of  respect  which  he  conceived  due  to  his 
position,  but  he  was  more  sensitive  to  the  fact  that  he  was  surrounded  by  spies 
in  the  pay  of  his  brother,  who  reported  his  acts  and  words,  and  sent  copies  of 
his  letters  to  the  Emperor.  Napoleon  was  specially  desirous  to  have  the 
blockade  maintained  against  English  commerce.  Holland  had  suffered  severely 
from  the  loss  of  her  colonies,  the  Cape,  Ceylon,  and  the  East  Indies,  and  the 
prosperity  of  the  country  depended  on  her  trade.  This  was  paralysed  by  the 
"  Continental  System."  Louis  saw  it,  and  shut  his  eyes  to  the  constant  evasion 
of  the  laws  against  the  trade  with  England.  This  was  reported  to  Napoleon, 
and  on  the  20th  December,  1809,  he  wrote,  reproaching  him  with  having  for- 
gotten that  he  was  a  Frenchman,  in  his  affectation  of  being  a  Dutchman.  He 
went  on  : — 

"  Your  Majesty  has  done  more  ;  you  took  advantage  of  the  moment  when  I 
was  involved  in  the  affairs  of  the  Continent,  to  renew  relations  between  Holland 
and  England,  to  violate  the  laws  of  the  blockade,  which  are  the  only  means  of 
effectually  destroying  the  latter  Power.  I  expressed  my  dissatisfaction  by  for- 
bidding you  to  come  to  France,  and  I  have  made  you  feel  that  even  without 
the  assistance  of  my  armies,  by  merely  closing  the  Rhine,  the  Weser,  the 
Scheldt,  and  the  Meuse  against  Holland,  I  should  have  placed  her  in  a  situation 
more  critical  than  if  I  had  declared  war  against  her.  Your  Majesty  implored 
my  generosity,  appealed  to  my  feelings  as  a  brother,  and  promised  to  amend 
your  conduct.  I  thought  this  warning  would  be  sufficient.  I  raised  my 
custom-house  prohibitions,  but  your  Majesty  has  returned  to  your  old  system. 
...  I  have  been  obliged  a  second  time  to  prohibit  trade  with  Holland.  In 
this  state  of  things,  we  may  consider  ourselves  really  at  war.  In  my  speech 
to  the  Legislative  Body  I  manifested  my  displeasure  ;  for  I  will  not  conceal 
from  you  that  my  intention  is  tv  unite  Holland  with  France.  This  will  be  the 
most  severe  blow  I  can  aim  against  England,  and  will  deliver  me  from  the 
perpetual  insults  which  the  plotters  of  your  cabinet  are  constantly  directing 
against  me.  The  mouths  of  the  Rhine  and  of  the  Meuse  ought,  indeed,  to 
belong  to  me.  The  principle  that  the  furrow  of  the  Rhine  valley  is  the  boundary 
of  France  is  a  fundamental  principle.  Your  Majesty  writes  me,  on  the  17th, 
that  you  are  sure  of  being  able  to  prevent  all  trade  between  Holland  and 
England.  I  am  of  opinion  that  your  Majesty  promises  more  than  you  can 
fulfil.  I  shall,  however,  remove  my  custom-house  prohibitions  whenever  the 
existing  treaties  are  executed.  The  following  are  the  conditions : — First,  the 
interdiction  of  all  trade  and  communication  with  England.  Second,  the  supply 
of  a  fleet  of  fourteen  sail  of  the  line,  seven  frigates,  and  seven  brigs  or  corvettes, 
armed  and  manned.  Third,  an  army  of  25,000  men.  .  .  .  Your  Majesty  may 
negotiate  on  these  bases  with  the  Due  de  Cadore,  through  the  medium  of  your 
minister ;  but  be  assured  that  on  the  entrance  of  the  first  packet-boat  into 
Holland,  I  will  restore  my  prohibitions,  and  that  the  first  Dutch  officer  who 
may  presume  to  insult  my  flag  shall  be  seized  and  hanged  at  the  mainyard. 
Your  Majesty  will  find  me  a  brother,  if  you  prove  yourself  a  Frenchman  ;  but 
if  you  forget  the  sentiments  which  attach  you  to  our  common  country,  you 
cannot  think  it  extraordinary  that  I  should  lose  sight  of  those  which  Nature 


384        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

created  between  us.  In  short,  the  union  with  Holland  and  France  will  be,  of 
all  things,  most  useful  to  France,  to  Holland,  and  the  whole  Continent,  because 
it  will  be  most  injurious  to  England.  This  union  must  be  effected  willingly,  or 
by  force.  Holland  has  given  sufficient  reason  for  me  to  declare  war  against 
her.  However,  I  shall  not  scruple  to  consent  to  an  arrangement  which  will 
secure  to  me  the  limit  of  the  Rhine,  and  by  which  Holland  will  pledge  herself 
to  fulfil  the  conditions  stipulated  above." 


NAPOLEOxN    ON    THE   TERRACK   OF    S.    CLOUD,    WITH    HIS    NEPHEWS   AND    NIECES. 
From  a  painting  by  Ducis. 

The  correspondence  between  the  two  brothers  ceased  for  a  while  ;  but  Louis 
was  still  subjected  to  vexations  on  the  part  of  Napoleon. 

Louis  saw  that  it  was  impossible  for  his  people  to  exist  situated  as  they 
were,  reduced  by  the  extinction  of  their  trade  to  the  resources  of  a  not  very 
fertile  soil,  painfully  recovered  from  the  sea  ;  and  exhausted  by  the  support  of 
an  army  beyond  its  means,  as  it  was  outside  its  requirements,  and  which  was 
solely  placed  in  Holland  for  the  purpose  of  riveting  the  yoke  on  the  necks  of 
the  impoverished  Dutch.  For  some  years  Holland  had  been  living  on  its 
capital,  on  what  it  had  saved  in  prosperity,  and  now  that  was  exhausted.  At 
this  juncture  to  deprive  it  of  the  English  trade,  of  coffee,  tea,  sugar,  tobacco, 
which  had  become  necessaries  of  life  to  the  people,  was  a  death  sentence. 

Louis  was  attached  to  Napoleon,  but  he  could  not  fail  to  disapprove  of  his 


HOLLAND  385 

"  Continental  System,"  and  he  did  his  utmost  to  diminish  the  number  of  the 
contingents  exacted  to  swell  the  army,  to  lighten  the  imposts,  and  to  tolerate  a 
traffic  in  smuggled  goods. 

Napoleon,  in  offering  Louis  the  crown  of  Spain,  had  admitted  the  desolate 
condition  to  which  the  Low  Countries  had  been  reduced.  "  They  will  not  be 
able,"  he  had  written,  "  to  recover  from  the  ruin  into  which  they  are  fallen  " 
(27th  March,  1808). 

After  the  ill-fated  Walcheren  expedition,  Napoleon  sent  French  troops  to 
occupy  Zeeland  and  Brabant,  under  the  pretext  that  this  was  a  demonstration 
against  the  English ;  and  the  Emperor  invited  Louis  to  come  to  Paris  to 
converse  with  him  relative  to  Dutch  affairs.  Louis  hesitated  to  accept  this 
invitation,  and  called  a  council  of  his  ministers,  but  as  they  were  of  opinion 
that  he  ought  to  go  to  Paris  in  the  interest  of  Holland,  he  resigned  himself  to 
do  so. 

No  sooner  did  he  arrive,  than  he  read  in  the  speech  addressed  by  the 
Emperor  to  the  Legislative  Body,  and  which  was  reported  in  the  Moniteur,  that 
"  Holland,  placed  between  France  and  England,  is  vexed  by  both ;  it  is  the 
mouth  of  the  principal  arteries  of  my  empire.  Changes  have  become  necessary. 
The  security  of  my  frontiers,  and  the  interest  of  both  countries  imperiously 
demand  them." 

Louis  was  irritated,  and  his  indignation  inspired  him  with  a  degree  of 
energy  of  which  he  was  not  believed  to  be  capable.  Amidst  the  general  silence 
of  the  servants  of  the  Empire,  and  even  of  the  Kings  and  Princes  assembled  in 
the  capital,  he  ventured  to  raise  his  voice  and  say,  "  I  have  been  deceived  by 
promises  which  were  never  intended  to  be  kept.  Holland  is  tired  of  being  the 
plaything  of  France."*  Louis  tried  to  escape  and  return  to  Holland.  He 
found  that  he  was  a  prisoner.  A  few  days  afterwards,  on  leaving  his  mother's 
house,  where  he  was  lodging  whilst  in  Paris,  he  was  stopped  by  gendarmes.  In 
this  situation,  he  sent  a  messenger  to  Amsterdam,  with  orders  to  the  Dutch  to 
close  the  fortresses,  and  above  all  the  capital,  to  the  French  troops  then  march- 
ing into  Holland.  Highly  incensed.  Napoleon  thereupon  showed  him  a  decree 
he  had  drawn  up,  ordering  the  incorporation  of  Holland  with  France.  How- 
ever, the  Emperor  hesitated  :  he  thought  that  the  menace  would  suffice.  But 
at  the  beginning  of  March,  18 10,  he  heard  that  the  commands  of  Louis  had 
been  obeyed,  and  that  the  French  troops  had  actually  been  refused  admission 
to  Berg-Op-Zoom  and  Breda,  and  that  the  Dutch  were  fortifying  Amsterdam.  In 
a  fury  he  wrote  (3rd  March,  18 10)  to  Fouche :  "  Has  the  King  of  Holland  gone 
off  his  head  ?  Enquire  of  him  if  it  is  by  his  order  that  his  ministers  have  acted 
thus,  or  whether  it  is  of  their  own  doing ;  and  tell  him  that  if  it  be  the  latter,  I 
will  have  every  one  of  their  heads  off." 

Frightened  out  of  his  wits,  Louis  submitted  in  the  most  abject  manner.  On 
the  1 6th  March,  he  signed  a  treaty,  whereby  he  engaged  to  fulfil  all  the  stipula- 
tions relative  to  the  blockade,  the  supply  of  contingents,  &c.,  and  to  accept  a 
position  of  vassalage,  which  was  more  humiliating  than  ah  abdication.     He 

*   BOURRIENNE,  ii.  452. 
2    C 


386        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

surrendered  to  the  Emperor  all  that  part  of  Holland  which  lies  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Rhine,  that  is  to  say,  about  a  quarter  of  his  territory,  and  he  consented  to 
entrust  the  defence  of  his  realm  to  a  French  army  of  occupation,  and  to  receive 
into  his  custom-houses  French  officers  to  replace  those  who  were  native,  and  to 
make  them  responsible  to  the  French  Emperor  alone. 

On  the  23rd  of  March,  18 10,  he  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Napoleon  : — 

"  If  you  wish  to  consolidate  the  present  state  of  France,  to  obtain  maritime 
peace,  or  to  attack  England  with  advantage,  those  objects  are  not  to  be  obtained 
by  such  measures  as  the  blockade,  the  destruction  of  a  kingdom  raised  by  your- 
self, or  the  enfeebling  of  your  allies,  and  setting  at  defiance  their  most  sacred 
rights,  and  the  first  principles  of  the  law  of  nations.  You  should,  on  the  con- 
trary, win  their  affections  for  France,  and  consolidate  and  reinforce  your  allies, 
making  them  like  your  brothers,  in  whom  you  may  place  confidence.  The 
destruction  of  Holland,  far  from  being  the  means  of  injuring  England,  will 
serve  only  to  increase  her  strength,  for  all  industry  and  wealth  will  fly  to  her  for 
refuge.  There  are,  in  reality,  only  three  ways  of  injuring  England,  namely,  by 
detaching  Ireland,  getting  possession  of  the  East  Indies,  or  by  invasion.  These 
two  latter  modes,  which  would  be  the  most  effectual,  cannot  be  executed  with- 
out a  naval  force.  But,  I  am  astonished  that  the  first  should  have  been  so 
readily  relinquished.  That  is  a  more  sure  method  of  obtaining  peace  on  good 
conditions,  than  the  system  of  injuring  ourselves  for  the  sake  of  doing  a  greater 
damage  to  the  enemy." 

But  remonstrances  produced  no  effect  on  Napoleon,  by  whomsoever  made. 
The  answer  of  the  Emperor  was  brutal  in  its  coarseness  : — 

"  Brother, — In  the  situation  in  which  we  are  placed,  it  is  best  to  speak 
candidly.  I  know  your  secret  sentiments,  and  all  that  you  can  say  to  the 
contrary  will  avail  nothing.  Holland  is  certainly  in  a  melancholy  situation.  I 
believe  you  are  anxious  to  extricate  her  from  her  difficulties ;  it  is  you,  and  you 
alone,  who  can  do  this.  When  you  conduct  yourself  in  such  a  way  as  to  induce 
the  people  of  Holland  to  believe  that  you  act  under  my  influence,  then  you  will 
be  loved,  you  will  be  esteemed,  and  you  will  acquire  the  power  requisite  for  re- 
establishing Holland  ;  when  to  be  my  friend,  and  the  friend  of  France,  shall 
become  a  title  of  favour  at  your  Court,  Holland  will  be  in  her  natural  situation. 
Since  your  return  from  Paris,  you  have  done  nothing  to  effect  this  object. 
What  will  be  the  result?  Your  subjects,  bandied  about  between  France  and 
England,  will  throw  themselves  into  the  arms  of  France,  and  will  demand  to  be 
united  to  her.  You  know  my  character,  which  is  to  pursue  my  object,  un- 
impeded by  any  consideration.  I  can  dispense  with  Holland,  but  Holland 
cannot  dispense  with  my  protection.  If,  under  the  dominion  of  one  of  my 
brothers,  but  looking  to  me  alone  for  her  welfare,  she  does  not  find  in  her 
Sovereign  my  image,  all  confidence  in  your  government  is  at  an  end,  your 
sceptre  is  broken.  Love  France,  love  my  glory — that  is  the  only  way  to  serve 
Holland.  If  you  had  acted  as  you  ought  to  have  done,  then  that  country  would 
have  been  the  more  dear  to  me,  since  I  had  given  her  a  Sovereign  whom  I  almost 
regard  as  my  son.  You  have  followed  a  course  diametrically  opposed  to  my 
expectations.  I  have  been  forced  to  prohibit  you  from  coming  to  France.  In 
proving  yourself  a  bad  Frenchman,  you  are  less  to  the  Dutch  than  a  Prince  of 
Orange.  .  .  .  You  seem  to  be  incorrigible,  for  you  will  drive  away  the  few 
Frenchmen  who  remain  with  you.  You  must  be  dealt  with  not  by  affectionate 
advice,  but  by  threats  and  compulsion.    What  mean  the  prayers  and  mysterious 


X      -^ 


>    fe 


HOLLAND  389 

fasts  you  have  ordered  ?  Louis,  you  will  not  reign  long.  Your  actions  disclose, 
better  than  your  confidential  letters,  the  sentiments  of  your  mind.  Be  a  French- 
man at  heart,  or  your  people  will  banish  you,  and  you  will  leave  Holland 
covered  with  ridicule.  States  must  be  governed  by  reason  and  policy,  and  not 
by  the  weakness  produced  by  acrid  and  vitiated  humours." 

The  last  sentence  contains  an  allusion  to  his  brother's  infirmities. 

This  letter  contrasts  notably  with  one  of  the  apocryphal  epistles  Napoleon 
manufactured  at  S.  Helena,  addressed  to  Louis,  and  dated  April  3rd,  1808,  and 
intended  to  impose  on  posterity.  Like  most  forgeries,  it  carries  evidence  of  its 
own  falsehood  in  its  composition,  for  it  contains  a  flagrant  anachronism.  This 
letter,  as  well  as  the  other,  composed  about  the  same  time  to  Murat,  has  been 
accepted  as  genuine  by  historians,  although  no  traces  have  been  found  of  either 
in  the  archives  of  Paris  or  Holland.  It  is,  perhaps,  needless  to  add  that  they 
have  been  inserted  in  the  Correspondance  de  Napoleon^  the  monument  erected  in 
honour  of  the  founder  of  the  dynasty  by  Napoleon  HI.,  and  that  from  the  same 
collection  have  been  omitted  the  letters  to  Louis  given  above,  and  which  are  of 
unquestionable  genuineness.  Napoleon  I.  had  begun  the  falsification  of  his  own 
correspondence  by  the  hand  of  Bourrienne,  before  the  dismissal  of  the  latter ; 
and  it  was  by  the  loss  of  his  secretary  that  the  proceeding  was  interrupted  and 
abandoned. 

A  few  days  after  the  letter  just  quoted  had  been  despatched  to  Louis, 
Napoleon  heard  that  the  King  of  Holland  had  taken  no  notice  of  Serurier,  his 
charge  d'affaires,  at  a  diplomatic  reception,  and  that  there  had  been  a  quarrel 
between  the  coachman  in  the  livery  of  the  ambassador  and  some  of  the  Dutch ; 
the  fellow  had  insulted  a  citizen  of  Amsterdam,  in  consequence  of  which  he  had 
been  beaten.  Napoleon  wrote  again  to  his  brother  a  letter*  full  of  insult  and 
abuse.     It  ended  thus  : — 

"  I  don't  want  any  more  phrases  and  protestations.  It  is  time  I  should 
know  whether  you  intend  to  ruin  Holland  by  your  follies.  I  have  recalled  my 
ambassador  ...  he  shall  no  longer  be  exposed  to  your  insults.  Write  me  no 
more  of  those  set  phrases,  which  you  have  been  repeating  for  the  last  three 
years,  the  falsehood  of  which  is  proved  every  day.  This  is  the  last  letter  I  will 
ever  write  to  you  as  long  as  I  live." 

At  the  same  time  the  Emperor  ordered  the  French  troops  to  concentrate  on 
Amsterdam,  and  gave  as  justification  "the  outrage  committed  on  the  eagles  of 
France,"  i.e.  on  the  buttons  of  the  coachman's  livery,  and  the  refusal  of  the  King 
to  allow  the  French  soldiers  to  enter  his  fortresses.  Louis  assembled  his 
Council,  and  gallantly  proposed  to  close  the  gates  of  Amsterdam,  and  flood  the 
country  by  cutting  the  dykes.  But  the  councillors  were  frightened,  and  advised 
submission.  Louis,  discouraged  and  disabused,  abdicated  in  favour  of  his  son, 
and  fled  secretly  to  Toeplitz.  For  a  month  Napoleon  did  not  know  what  had 
become  of  him.  The  Emperor  at  once  annexed  Holland  to  France  (9th  July, 
1 8 10),  ignored  the  abdication  in  favour  of  his  nephew,  and  when  he  discovered 

*  Also  omitted  from  the  Correspondance. 


390        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

where  his  brother  was,  ordered  Otto,  who  had  been  ambassador  at  Vienna,  to 
write- the  following  letter  to  Louis  : — 

"  Sire, — The  Emperor  directs  me  to  address  your  Majesty  as  follows  : — It  is 
the  duty  of  every  French  Prince,  and  every  member  of  the  Imperial  family,  to 
reside  in  France,  whence  they  cannot  absent  themselves  without  the  permission 
of  the  Emperor.  Before  the  union  of  Holland  to  the  Empire,  the  Emperor  per- 
mitted the  King  to  reside  at  Toeplitz,  in  Bohemia.  His  health  appeared  to 
require  the  use  of  the  waters  ;  but  now  the  Emperor  requires  that  Prince  Louis 
shall  return,  at  the  latest,  by  the  ist  December  next,  under  pain  of  being  con- 
sidered as  disobeying  the  Constitution  of  the  Empire  and  the  head  of  the 
family,  and  being  treated  accordingly." 

"  M.  Constant,"  said  Napoleon,  soon  after  this,  to  his  valet,  "  do  you  know 
what  are  the  three  capitals  of  the  French  Empire  ?  "  Then,  without  waiting  for 
an  answer,  he  continued,  "  They  are  Paris,  Rome,  and  Amsterdam." 


i 


XLII 


THE    PEACE    OF    VIENNA 


(1809) 


^nr^HE  precipitate  return  to  Paris  from  Spain  had  been  occasioned  partly  be- 
^     cause  Napoleon  saw  that  the  reduction  of  the  Peninsula  would  be  a  long, 
tedious,  and  inglorious  work,  but  also  because  he  had  resolved  on  another  cam- 
paign against  Austria  ;  and  such,  he  did  not  doubt, 
would  be  as  successful  and  dazzling  as  had  been 
the  former,  which  had  ended  at  Austerlitz. 

The  Austrian  army  had  been  reorganised  by 
the  Archduke  Charles.  It  consisted  of  300,000 
men,  to  which  was  added  a  reserve  of  100,000. 
Moreover,  the  raising  of  the  Landwehr  had 
been  ordered  throughout  the  Empire.  All 
the  male  population  capable  of  bearing 
arms  had  been  enrolled,  with  an  enthusiasm 
that  had  been  general,  and  had  known  no 
distinction  of  classes.  The  humiliation  to 
which  the  Empire  had  been  subjected  had 
sunk  to  the  heart  of  the  nation,  which 
nourished  the  keenest  resentment.  For 
the  first  time,  patriotic  feeling  had  been 
manifested  in  this  singular  conglomerate 
Empire,  and  a  sense  had  sprung  up 
throughout  Germany  that  Austria  had 
been  the  champion  of  the  Teutonic  race, 
of  the  rights  of  nations,  and  of  national 

liberty.  The  activity  with  which  the  armament  of  the  people  was  pressed 
forward  in  the  Austrian  Empire  attracted  the  attention  of  Napoleon.  On  the 
1 6th  July,  1808,  Champagny  was  directed  to  question  Metternich  on  the 
intentions  of  his  Government. 

The  Austrian  Government  made  profession  of  pacific  intentions,  and  ex- 
plained that  as  all  the  neighbouring  States — Bavaria,  Westphalia,  and  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw — had  transformed  their  military  institutions,  and  had 

391 


NAPOLEON. 

After  an  engraving  by  Couche. 


392         THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

adopted  the  French  system  of  conscription,  it  did  not  behove  Austria  to  remain 
behind. 

No  sooner  had  Napoleon  arrived  in  Paris,  than  he  took  the  matter  up  with 
energy.  On  the  15th  of  August,  he  addressed  a  pubUc  remonstrance  on  the 
same  subject  to  Metternich,  the  Austrian  ambassador,  using  violent  expressions, 
and  losing  his  dignity  in  real  or  assumed  anger. 

In  order  to  overawe  Austria,  but  mainly  because  for  once  he  was  less  ready 
than  his  opponents,  he  determined  on  an  interview  with  the  Emperor  Alexander 
of  Russia,  at  Erfurt,  that  was  also  to  be  attended  by  all  the  princes  and 
potentates  subject  to  him.  The  meeting  would  afford  him  time  to  prepare 
before  beginning  hostilities.  As  Edgar  had  been  rowed  on  the  Dee  by  eight 
kings,  so  would  Napoleon  arrive  attended  by  a  train  of  sovereigns,  his  ob- 
sequious servants. 

When  the  French  drummers  began  to  rattle  their  sticks  on  the  approach  of 
one  of  these  royalties,  "  Bah  ! "  said  the  commandant,  "  what  are  you  drumming 
for  ?     This  is  only  a  king  !  " 

Francis  did  not  go  to  the  Erfurt  assembly  on  the  27th  September,  nor  did 
the  King  of  Prussia,  who  was  represented  by  Prince  William.  Four  kings  of 
Napoleon's  creation — those  of  Bavaria,  Wiirtemberg,  Saxony,  and  Westphalia 
— the  Prince  Primate,  the  Grand  Dukes  of  Hesse-Darmstadt  and  of  Baden,  the 
Dukes  of  Weimar,  Saxe-Gotha,  Oldenburg,  twenty  Princes,  and  any  number  of 
Counts,  hovered  round  his  Imperial  Majesty  Napoleon  I.,  who  took  on  himself 
the  entertainment  of  the  whole  assembly.  Gobelins  tapestries,  Sevres  jars, 
chandeliers  of  cut  glass,  furniture,  and  a  legion  of  cooks  and  lacqueys,  were 
sent  from  Paris. 

The  two  Emperors  walked,  rode,  dined  with  each  other,  and  Napoleon  carried 
off  the  attendant  princes  and  kings  to  see  Jena.  He  had  the  want  of  delicacy 
to  make  Prince  William  of  Prussia  attend  him,  when  he  showed  them  over  the 
field.     Berthier  was  annoyed,  and  afterwards  remonstrated  with  the  Emperor. 

"  It  was  unwisely  done,"  he  ventured  to  say. 

"  What  ?  "  answered  Napoleon,  pinching  his  ear.  "  Do  you  think  I  was  a  fool 
to  put  canes  in  their  hands  wherewith  to  whip  me?  Be  at  your  ease  ;  I  did  not 
tell  them  all."  * 

At  the  theatre,  where  Q7.dipus  was  being  acted,  when  the  line  was  pro- 
nounced— 

"  L'amitie  d'un  grand  homme  est  un  bienfait  des  dieux  " — 

Alexander,  who  was  in  an  arm-chair  near  Napoleon  above  the  orchestra,  rose, 
bowed  and  shook  hands  with  Bonaparte  ;  whereat  all  the  kings  and  princes,  and 
grand  dukes  and  little  dukes,  the  highnesses  and  transparencies,  clapped 
their  hands  and  cheered.  But  that  night  Napoleon  was  oppressed  with  night- 
mare. He  dreamed  that  he  was  being  hugged,  and  his  heart  torn  out,  by  a  bear, 
and  he  roused  his  attendants  by  his  cries,  f 

Magnificent  presents  were   given    all  round,  and  Napoleon  sent  his   valet 

*  Constant,  M^moires,  1830,  iv.  84.  f  Constant,  Ibid.,  76. 


THE    PEACE    OF   VIENNA  393 

through  the  streets  carrying  a  handsome  night-commode  as  a  gift  to  his  imperial 
brother. 

But,  in  spite  of  festivities  and  mutual  compliments,  mistrust  lay  at  the  heart 
of  those  most  concerned.  Alexander  had  seen  how  little  reliance  was  to  be 
placed  on  the  promises  of  Napoleon,  and  that  the  execution  of  his  part  of  the 
Treaty  of  Tilsit  was  far  from  his  thoughts. 

"  Romanzoff "  (the  Russian  minister),  wrote  Champagny  to  the  Emperor, 
his  master,  "allows  me  to  perceive  that  the  sentiment  lurking  behind  every 
word  he  utters  is  one  of  mistrust — mistrust  of  events,  and  mistrust  of  our  in- 
tentions." 

On  the  29th  September,  the  Baron  de  Vincent  had  brought  Napoleon  a 
courteous  letter  from  the  Austrian  Emperor,  in  which  he  excused  himself  for 
not  being  able  to  attend  the  meeting  at  Erfurt. 

On  the  14th  October,  Napoleon  answered  this  in  a  very  different  tone.  After 
having  reminded  Francis  that  he  had  been  in  a  position  to  dismember  the 
Austrian  monarchy,  but  had  not  willed  to  do  so — an  allegation  which  was  not 
true — he  went  on  to  say  : — 

"  What  your  Majesty  is,  that  you  are  by  my  favour.  .  .  .  Your  Majesty  has 
no  right  to  open  up  questions  that  have  been  settled  after  fifteen  years  of  war. 
You  must  forbid  every  step  likely  to  provoke  war.  .  .  .  Your  Majesty  must 
abstain  from  all  armaments  which  may  give  me  uneasiness,  and  may  make  a 
diversion  in  favour  of  England.  .  .  .  Your  Majesty  must  regard  all  such  as 
speak  of  danger  to  the  monarchy  as  persons  who  trouble  his  happiness,  that 
of  his  family,  and  that  of  his  subjects." 

And  this  extraordinary  lecture  terminated  with  the  maxim,  still  more  extra- 
ordinary as  coming  from  him,  "  The  best  policy  to  follow  is  simplicity  and 
truth." 

No  sooner  was  Napoleon  returned  from  Spain,  than  he  pressed  on  prepara- 
tions for  war  with  feverish  haste.  Bessieres  was  brought  from  Burgos  to  the 
Rhine,  and  was  placed  at  the  head  of  80,000  men.  Lannes  commanded  50,000 
men  ;  Davoust  60,000,  concentrating  on  Bamberg  ;  Massena  had  50,000,  and  was 
instructed  to  proceed  to  Ulm  ;  Lefebvre  had  40,000 :  Augereau,  20,000 ;  Berna- 
dotte  was  despatched  to  Dresden  to  command  50,000  Saxons  ;  King  Jerome 
was  at  the  head  of  a  contingent  of  12,000  from  Westphalia ;  in  all  324,000  men, 
and,  with  the  Army  of  Italy,  the  forces  at  his  disposal  amounted  to  424,000. 

Instructions  were  transmitted  to  the  French  ambassador  at  Warsaw  to  hasten 
the  formation  of  three  Polish  divisions  to  menace  Galicia.  The  Princes  of  the 
Rhenish  Confederacy  were  enjoined  to  collect  their  respective  contingents,  and 
converge  on  the  Danube. 

On  the  27th  March,  1809,  appeared  a  declaration  from  the  Emperor  Francis, 
in  which  he  recapitulated  all  his  grievances  against  France.  A  manifesto  was 
addressed  to  "the  German  nation,"  in  which  stood  the  significant  words, 
"  Resistance  is  the  last  resort  for  our  salvation  ;  our  cause  is  one  with  that  of 
Germany."  Gentz,  in  an  appeal  to  the  German  nation  on  the  15th  April, 
exclaimed,  "  The  freedom  of  Europe  has  taken  refuge  under  the  banners  of 


394         THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Austria."  And  this  was  true.  Austria  was  alone  ;  it  had  to  rely  on  its  own 
arm  unassisted.  In  Prussia  men  were  indeed  being  enrolled  ;  but  Prussia  was 
unable  to  take  the  field  in  its  crippled  condition  without  the  sanction  of  Russia, 
and  the  Czar  had  warned  her  at  Erfurt  not  to  draw  the  sword. 

Austria  might  have  succeeded,  had  there  been  in  her  the  requisite  prompti- 
tude. In  January  there  was  a  chance  for  her,  as  Napoleon  was  unprepared; 
but  full  time  was  granted  him  to  collect  his  enormous  forces.     Even  when  war 


YOUR    HAND ! 

AN    INCIDENT   OF   THE   PASSAGE   OF    THE    DANUBE. 

From  a  lithograph  by  Raflfet. 


i 


was  declared,  an  opening  was  given  to  the  Archduke  Charles  to  throw  himself 
against  each  column  of  the  enemy  with  all  his  force,  as  it  approached,  and  to 
crush  each  in  turn ;  but  he  allowed  all  the  columns  to  unite  and  concentrate, 
and  the  opportunity  was  lost.  At  the  opening  of  the  campaign  he  had  not 
made  up  his  mind  as  to  his  course — whether  to  stand  on  the  defensive  in 
Bohemia,  or  to  enter  Bavaria.  Indeed,  Davoust  was  for  many  days  exposed  to., 
destruction  in  his  southward  march,  had  Prussia  risen  round  him,  or  Charles] 
fallen  on  his  flank.  That  Napoleon  should  have  exposed  his  columns  to  such] 
great  risk,  was  only  to  be  justified  by  conviction  of  the  incompetency  of  thej 
Archduke.     He  knew  that  his  adversary  had  no  inspirations  of  genius.     Thej 


THE    PEACE    OF   VIENNA 


395 


Austrian  army  crawled  over  the  country  like  a  tortoise,  against  an  enemy  that 
moved  with  lightning  speed.  When  the  Archduke  resolved  to  occupy  the 
Bavarian  tableland,  the  chance  of  defeating  the  enemy  piecemeal  was  gone. 
His  manoeuvres  thenceforth  were  purposeless  and  blundering.  In  an  engage- 
ment before  Ratisbon  Napoleon  was  slightly  wounded  in  the  foot.  The  Arch- 
duke extended  his  line  unduly,  so  as  to  invite  Napoleon  to  break  through  its 
centre,  an  invitation  at  once  accepted,  and  carried  out  at  Eckmiihl.     The  left 


THE    DEATH    OF    LANNES. 
From  a  painting  by  Boutigny. 


wing  was  shattered  and  dispersed,  and  the  right  retired  into  Bohemia  without 
the  possibility  of  opposing  the  advance  of  the  enemy  on  Vienna. 

The  Austrians  lost  50,000  men;  and  again,  as  in  the  campaign  of  1805, 
Napoleon  found  none  to  resist  his  entry  into  the  capital,  which  took  place  on 
the  13th  of  May.  He  calculated  on  detaching  Hungary  from  the  imperial 
crown,  and  issued  a  manifesto  to  the  Hungarian  population,  calling  them  to 
independence  (May  15th).  But  the  proclamation  produced  no  effect.  More- 
over, Napoleon  was  not,  on  this  occasion,  destined  to  trample  on  Austria  with 
as  much  ease  as  after  Austerlitz.  The  Archduke  Charles  had  led  his  force 
down  the  Danube  along  the  left  bank,  and  had  taken  up  his  position  opposite 
Vienna.     Napoleon   resolved   to  attack   him,  to  do  which  he  was  obliged  to 


396        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

traverse  the  river,  then  swelled  and  still  rising,  by  way  of  the  island  of  Lobau, 
that  broke  its  course,  and  w^hich  the  Austrian  general  had  neglected  to  occupy. 
Here,  accordingly,  the  Emperor  began  to  cross.  The  Archduke  at  once  saw 
his  advantage,  and  fell  on  the  French  when  half  their  number  had  crossed,  and 
in  the  two  desperate  battles  of  Aspern  and  Essling,  fought  on  the  2ist  and  22nd 
of  May,  defeated  Napoleon,  and  drove  him  back  on  to  the  island. 

Had  the  Archduke  pursued  his  success,  and  attacked  the  discouraged  and 
beaten  army  on  Lobau,  or  had  the  Archduke  John  fulfilled  the  orders  given  him 
to  march  directly  from  Carinthia  to  the  assistance  of  the  army  of  the  Arch- 
duke Charles,  the  French  would  most  certainly  have  been  completely  routed, 
and  forced  to  retreat  to  the  Rhine. 

The  Prussian  patriots  were  urgent  that  Prussia  should  declare  herself,  and 
take  the  field  for  Austria,  but  the  King  was  not  to  be  provoked  to  so  bold  a 
step.  To  the  urgency  of  the  Austrian  plenipotentiary,  he  answered, "  We  will  do 
what  we  can  some  day,  but  the  moment  is  not  now." 

As  Napoleon  retired,  defeated  and  almost  in  despair,  to  Lobau,  he  saw  his 
great  friend,  Lannes,  on  his  litter,  mortally  wounded.  Next  day  he  visited  him 
in  the  hovel  to  w'hich  he  had  been  carried.  The  moment  Lannes  saw  him,  "  he 
turned  on  him  eyes  rather  of  a  judge  than  of  a  friend  or  follower.  In  the 
presence  of  the  great  mystery  which  dissipates  human  illusions,  Lannes  rejected 
consolations,  the  emptiness  of  which  he  well  knew.  He  broke  forth  in  bitter 
reproach  of  the  ambition,  the  insensibility  of  the  frantic  gambler,  with  whom 
men  were  but  the  petty  coins,  exposed  without  scruple,  and  lost  without 
remorse.  Lannes  had  been  a  Republican.  He  had  remained  an  ardent  patriot. 
More  than  once  he  had  offended  his  master  by  the  boldness  of  his  censure,  and 
had  shown  his  disapproval  in  the  midst  of  a  servile  Court."  * 

The  Emperor,  with  his  usual  energy,  strained  every  nerve  to  animate  his 
men  and  to  concentrate  all  his  forces.  He  was  watched  by  the  Austrians  till 
June  5th,  when  the  Archduke,  to  his  astonishment  and  confusion,  found  that, 
during  the  night,  the  French  had  made  fresh  bridges  at  another  point,  and  had 
transferred  the  whole  army  to  the  left  bank.  Then  ensued  the  battle  of  Wagram. 
That  was  contested  by  the  Archduke  at  the  head  of  140,000  men,  pitted  against 
180,000.  Charles  calculated  on  the  arrival  of  the  Archduke  John,  who  was 
repeatedly  ordered  to  march  up  to  his  support ;  but  he  was  again  disappointed. 
After  a  hardly  contested  day  the  French  had  barely  gained  a  victory,  and  were 
exhausted  ;  then,  only,  the  Archduke  John  appeared,  and  precipitately  retired, 
without  attempting  to  strike  a  blow. 

Six  days  later  an  armistice  was  concluded  at  Znaim,and  Charles  surrendered 
his  command.  Without  an  ally,  Austria  was  unable  to  prosecute  the  war. 
Negotiations  for  the  conclusion  of  a  peace  were  entered  upon,  and  protracted 
on  account  of  the  hard  conditions  imposed  by  Napoleon.  At  last,  on  October 
i;4th,  the  Peace  of  Vienna  was  signed,  whereby  the  Kaiser  sacrificed  one-third 
of  his  territories,  and  was  deprived  of  one  of  his  main  arteries,  in  that  he  was 
cut  off  from  the  Adriatic.     Tyrol,  Salzburg,  went  to  Bavaria ;  Gorz,  Trieste, 

*  Lanfrey,  iv.  538. 


THE    PEACE    OF   VIENNA  399 

Carnlola,  and  Croatia  were  ceded  to  France ;  Saxony  and  Russia  had  Galicia 
parted  between  them.  The  Austrian  Emperor  entered  into  the  "  Continental 
System,"  was  condemned  to  pay  eighty-five  milUon  francs,  and  was  forbidden  to 
maintain  an  army  of  above  i5o,ocx)  men. 

A  curious  circumstance  came  to  Hght  somewhat  later,  which  showed  how 
•entirely  unscrupulous  Napoleon  was  as  to  the  means  he  employed  against  an 
enemy.  In  his  hopes  of  destroying  the  credit  of  Austria,  he  had  contrived  the 
forgery  in  Paris  of  her  bank  notes.  He  was  furious  because  the  Emperor  of 
Austria  sent  agents  into  France  and  Italy  to  endeavour  to  trace  out  the  forgers, 
and  he  ordered  the  arrest  of  these  emissaries.*  Metternich,  in  his  Memoirs, 
tells  us  how  at  a  later  period,  after  the  marriage  with  Marie  Louise,  the 
Emperor  frankly  admitted  to  him  that  this  had  been  his  doing,  a  scheme  of  his 
own  for  rendering  Austria  bankrupt,  and  that  he  chuckled  over  his  cleverness. 
Napoleon  promised  to  have  the  plates  and  the  notes  destroyed,  but  he  did 
not  do  so.f 

*  To  Fouche,  12th  July,  1806.  t  Metternich,  Memoirs,  1880-4,  ii.  355. 


XLIII 

MARIE    LOUISE 

(1810) 

A  T  Erfurt,  Napoleon  had  informed  Alexander  that  he  intended  to  divorce 
■^  ^  Josephine,  because  she  was  childless  by  him,  and  to  marry  another ;  and 
he  sounded  the  Czar  as  to  whether  he  would  give  him  his  sister  Catherine. 
Alexander  evaded  a  direct  answer :  he  expressed  himself  in  the  most  flattering 
terms,  but  raised  such  difficulties  as  the  difference  of  religion,  and  the  objection 
of  his  mother.  The  matter  was  dropped ;  but  after  Wagram,  and  whilst 
Napoleon  was  in  the  course  of  the  negotiations  which  concluded  in  the  Peace 
of  Vienna,  his  resolution  ripened.  The  Empress  Dowager  had  in  the  mean- 
time hurried  on  a  marriage  of  the  Archduchess  Catherine  with  the  Duke  of 
Oldenburg ;  but  there  remained  another  sister  of  the  Czar,  Anna,  and 
Napoleon  now  sent  to  his  ambassador  at  St.  Petersburg  to  formally  ask  the 
hand  of  this  Princess  for  his  master. 

On  the  2 1st  of  October,  he  had  written  to  poor  Josephine  :  "  I  look  forward 
as  to  a  holiday  to  seeing  you  again.  I  await  the  moment  with  impatience. 
I  embrace  you.  Altogether  thine,"  and  five  days  after,  on  his  arrival  at 
Fontainebleau,  communicated  to  Cambaceres  the  project  of  divorce.  This 
astute  individual  had  already  been  struck  with  the  elation  manifest  in  the 
manner  of  the  Emperor,  who  "  seemed  to  strut  in  the  halo  of  glory." 
Cambaceres  represented  to  him  that  Josephine  was  vastly  beloved  by  the 
French,  and  that  an  alliance  with  a  member  of  an  old  dynasty  might  be 
contrary  to  the  Republican  temper  of  the  people.  But  he  speedily  recognised 
that  any  objection  offered  by  him  would  be  in  vain,  and  he  set  himself  to  work 
as  a  good  servant  to  smooth  the  difficulties  that  stood  in  the  way. 

Almost  immediately,  Austria  got  wind  of  the  project,  and  was  alarmed. 
She  had  no  desire  for  a  closer  alliance  between  the  Czar  and  Napoleon,  and 
rather  than  permit  this,  was  ready  to  sacrifice  one  of  her  own  daughters.  A 
hint  v/as  at  once  dropped  by  the  Austrian  ambassador  at  Paris,  and  was  caught 
at  with  indecent  readiness  by  Napoleon,  who  immediately  despatched  a  courier 
to  Russia  (loth  January,  18 10),  demanding  a  categorical  answer  within  ten 
days  to  his  proposal  for  the  sister  of  Alexander.  The  Czar  had  received  the 
first  communication  only  on  the  28th  December,  1809.  This  imperious  demand 
was  insulting,  and  Napoleon  was  satisfied  that  it  would  be  so  considered.     He 

400 


MARIE    LOUISE  401 

had  resolved  in  his  own  mind  not  to  enter  into  the   Russian  alliance,  but  to 
secure  a  union  with  the  House  of  Hapsburg. 

Notwithstanding  that  he  had  created  kings,  and  dukes,  and  nobles  of  many 
degrees,  he  was  not  comfortable  in  the  presence  of  the  ancient  dynasties  and 
feudal  aristocracies.  He  was  conscious  of  a  certain  gaucherie,  although  invested 
in  Imperial  robes,  and  of  gene  in  presence  of  those  who  had  an  hereditary  title. 
To  be  able  to  link  himself  with  one  of  the  most  historic  of  the  Houses  in 
Europe,  would  be  a  great  achievement,  and  if  he  were  so  happy  as  to  beget  a 
son,  his  offspring  would  not  labour  under  the  disadvantage  of  being  a  man 
without  an  ancestry. 

The  ultimatum  sent  to  the  Czar  allowed  him  till  the  20th  January  to  make 
up  his  mind,  but  on  the  21st,  a  fortnight  before  he  could  receive  an  answer, 
Napoleon  assembled  a  private  council  at  the  Tuileries,  composed  of  all  the 
grandees  of  the  Empire,  to  submit  to  them  the  choice  between  the  two  grand 
alliances  offered  to  him. 

In  the  meantime,  Alexander  had  received  and  answered  the  peremptory 
communication.  As  he  was  unwilling  to  quarrel  with  the  French  Emperor,  he 
replied  with  courtesy,  that  he  was  willing  to  consider  the  proposal,  but  that  his 
sister  was  not  yet  sixteen  years  old,  and  could  hardly  be  married  for  a  couple 
of  years.  This  reply  reached  Paris  on  the  6th  February,  and  Napoleon  at  once 
wrote  to  Caulaincourt  that  this  was  sufficient  to  release  him  from  obligation  to 
Alexander  relative  to  his  proposal,*  and  on  the  very  next  day,  February  7th,  he 
signed  a  contract  of  marriage  with  the  Archduchess  Marie  Louise  of  Austria. 

For  many  years  the  fear  that  she  would  be  divorced  had  preyed  on 
Josephine's  mind,  and  it  was  with  a  sad  heart  that  she  had  viewed  the  prepara- 
tions for  the  coronation,  as  she  foresaw  that  with  the  assumption  of  sovereignty, 
Napoleon's  ambition  would  not  be  satisfied  till  he  had  a  son,  to  whom  he  could 
transmit  his  crown.  But  after  having  long  dreaded  the  misfortune  that 
threatened  her,  the  Empress  had  begun  to  hope  that  it  would  pass  away, 
having  been  adjourned.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  errors  of  her  early  life, 
she  had  made  amends  when  raised  to  be  the  associate  of  the  greatest  man  of 
his  age.  In  a  towering  position,  she  had  remained  humble,  and  her  influence 
had  been  exercised  for  good.  Kindly,  gracious,  sweet-dispositioned,  she  had 
made  no  enemies,  save  among  the  Bonaparte  family,  which  could  not  forgive 
her  past,  and  desired  for  their  head  a  more  illustrious  wife.  If  not  endowed 
with  much  wit,  "File  pouvait  bien  s'en  passer,"  as  Talleyrand  said,  and  not- 
withstanding all  his  infidelities,  she  maintained  a  hold  on  Napoleon's  heart,  and, 
what  was  better  than  that,  inspired  him  with  personal  respect. 

During  long  years,  the  dread  of  being  divorced  weighing  like  a  nightmare 
on  Josephine,  had  taken  the  brightness  out  of  her  pleasures  ;  but  this  fear  had 
been  laid  at  the  very  moment  when  the  blow  was  destined  to  fall.  She  alone 
was  unaware  of  what  was  in  everyone's  mouth.  Napoleon  arrived  at  Fontaine- 
bleau  on  the  26th  October,  1809,  and  he  had  sent  for  Eugene  Beauharnais  and 
Queen  Hortense,  to  soften  the  blow  to  their  mother.     The  first  intimation  to 

*  An  extraordinary  letter,  impossible  to  quote. 
2    D 


402         THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

her  that  something  was  determined,  compromising  her  happiness,  was  given  by 
the  masons  walling  up  the  door  of  communication  between  her  apartments 
and  those  of  the  Emperor.  The  Court  left  Fontainebleau  on  the  15th  November, 
to  return  to  Paris.  All  the  Sovereigns  in  the  constellation  around  the  Emperor 
had  been  convoked.  The  restraint  in  the  manner  of  her  husband,  the  hesitation 
and  anxious  looks  among  her  friends  and  attendants,  warned  Josephine  that  a 
crisis  was  at  hand.  Napoleon  did  not  await  the  arrival  of  Eugene  Beauharnais. 
On  the  evening  of  the  30th  November,  he  broke  to  the  unhappy  woman  the 


.'       •     .  NAPOLEON    BREAKING   THE    NEWS   TO  JOSEPHINE. 

From  a  picture  by  Chasselat. 

tidings  of  their  approaching  separation.     How  this  took  place  she  afterwards 
told  Bourrienne. 

"  We  were  dining  together  as  usual ;  I  had  not  uttered  a  word  during  that 
sad  dinner,  and  he  had  broken  silence  only  to  ask  one  of  the  servants  what 
o'clock  it  was.  As  soon  as  Bonaparte  had  taken  his  coffee,  he  dismissed  all  the 
attendants,  and  I  remained  alone  with  him.  I  saw  in  the  expression  of  his 
countenance  what  was  passing  in  his  mind,  and  I  knew  that  my  hour  was  come. 
He  stepped  up  to  me — he  was  trembling,  and  shuddered— he  took  my  hand, 
pressed  it  to  his  heart,  and  after  gazing  at  me  for  a  few  moments  in  silence,  he 
uttered  these  fatal  words  :  '  Josephine  !  My  dear  Josephine  !  You  know  how  I 
have  loved  you.  To  you,  to  you  alone,  I  ow6  the  only  moments  of  happiness 
I  have  tasted  in  this  world.  But,  Josephine,  my  destiny  is  not  to  be  controlled 
by  my  will.     My  dearest  affections  must  yield  to  the.interests  of  France.'     '  Say 


MARIE    LOUISE  403 

no  more,'  I  exclaimed,  '  I  understand  you  ;  I  expected  this,  but  the  blow  is 
none  the  less  mortal.'  I  could  not  say  another  word.  I  know  not  what 
happened  after  that."  .  . 

The  fullest  details  come  from  the  pen  of  Bausset,  prefet  of  the  palace.* 

"  Their  Imperial  Majesties  were  at  table.  Josephine  wore  a  large  white  hat, 
knotted  under  her  chin,  hiding  part  of  her  face.  I  thought  that  I  perceived 
that  she  had  been  crying,  and  had  then  a  difficulty  in  restraining  her  tears. 
She  was  a  picture  of  sorrow  and  despair.  Silence  during  dinner  was  profound  ; 
they  touched  the  food  presented  them  merely  as  a  matter  of  form.  The  only 
words  addressed  to  me  by  Napoleon  were, '  Quel  temps  fait-il?'  As  he  spoke 
he  rose ;  Josephine  followed  slowly.f  Coffee  was  offered  ;  Napoleon  took  his 
cup,  and  signed  to  be  left  alone.  I  went  out  quickly,  very  uneasy  in  mind, 
troubled  with  my  thoughts.  I  seated  myself  in  the  ante-chamber,  on  a  sofa 
beside  the  door  of  the  saloon,  and  mechanically  watched  the  servants  engaged 
in  removing  the  dinner  things,  when  all  at  once  I  heard  violent  cries,  uttered 
by  the  Empress  Josephine,  issue  from  the  saloon.  The  usher  of  the  chamber 
would  have  opened  ;  but  I  prevented  him,  and  told  him  that  if  his  services 
were  needed,  the  Emperor  would  summon  him.  I  was  standing  by  the  door, 
when  Napoleon  opened  it  himself,  and  observing  me,  said  hastily,  '  Go  in, 
Bausset,  and  shut  the  door.'  I  entered  the  saloon,  and  saw  the  Empress  ex- 
tended on  the  carpet,  uttering  cries  and  piercing  lamentations,  '  No !  I  shall 
never  survive  it!' J  Napoleon  said  to  me,  'Are  you  strong  enough  to  raise 
Josephine,  and  to  carry  her  by  the  inner  staircase  that  communicates  with  her 
room,  so  that  she  may  have  the  help  and  care  administered  to  her  that  she 
requires?'  I  obeyed,  and  raised  the  Empress.  With  the  aid  of  Napoleon,  I 
carried  her  in  my  arms,  and  he  took  a  candle  from  the  table,  and  lighted  the 
way  for  me,  and  opened  the  dining-room  door,  which  by  a  dark  passage  com- 
municates with  the  little  staircase  to  which  he  had  referred.  On  reaching  the 
first  step,  I  observed  to  Napoleon  that  it  was  too  narrow  for  me  to  be  able  to 
descend  with  my  burden  without  the  risk  of  a  fall.  He  then  called  the  keeper 
of  his  portfolio,  who  was  placed  night  and  day  at  one  of  the  doors  of  his 
cabinet,  which  communicated  with  the  landing  of  this  little  stair.  Napoleon 
handed  the  candle  to  him,  which  we  no  longer  needed,  because  the  passages 
were  lighted.  He  ordered  the  keeper  to  proceed,  took  hold  of  the  two  feet  of 
Josephine,  to  assist  me  in  descending  with  more  safety.  But  we  nearly  had  a 
fall,  as  I  became  entangled  with  my  sword.  Happily  we  reached  the  bottom 
without  an  accident,  and  placed  our  precious  burden  on  an  ottoman  in  the  bed- 
room. The  Emperor  at  once  rang  the  bell,  and  summoned  the  waiting-women 
of  the  Empress.  When  I  had  raised  the  Empress  in  the  dining-room,  she 
ceased  her  lamentations.  I  thought  she  was  unconscious.  But  when  entangled 
with  my  sword  on  the  stair,  I  was  obliged  to  hold  her  rather  tightly.  She  was 
on  my  arm,  which  was  about  her  waist,  and  her  back  was  against  my  breast, 
and  her  head  rested  on  my  right  shoulder.  When  she  felt  the  efforts  I  made  to 
avoid  a  fall,  she  said  to  me  in  a  low  tone,  '  You  press  me  too  much ! '  I  saw 
then  that  I  had  nothing  to  fear  for  her  health  ;  she  had  not  lost  consciousness. 
When  the  women  came,  Napoleon  passed  into  a  little  chamber  that  was  before 
the  bedroom,  and  I  followed  him.  His  agitation,  his  disquiet,  were  extreme. 
In  the  trouble  in  which  he  was,  he  let  me  understand  the  cause  of  all  that  had 
come  to  pass,  as  he  said  to  me,  '  In  the  interests  of  France  and  of  my  dynasty, 

*  Supplemented  by  Constant,  also  a  witness. 

t  "  Holding  her  handkerchief  to  her  mouth." — Constant. 

+  "  No.!  you  will  not  do  it!     You  do  not  wish  to  kill  me."— Constant. 


404 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


I  must  do  violence  to  my  heart.  This  divorce  has  become  a  rigorous  duty  with 
me.  I  am  all  the  more  vexed  at  this  scene,  which  Josephine  has  made,  as  for 
three  days  she  has  been  prepared  for  it  by  Hortense— it  is  an  unhappy  necessity 
that  obliges  me  to  separate  from  her — I  pity  her  from  the  depth  of  my  heart. 
I  did  think  she  had  more  strength  of  character.  I  was  not  prepared  for  such 
an  outburst  of  distress.'  The  emotion  in  which  he  was,  forced  him  to  speak  at 
long  intervals,  so  as  to  allow  him  to  breathe  between  each  sentence.  His  words 
escaped  him  with  pain,  and  disconnectedly,  his  voice  was  agitated,  and  tears 
moistened  his  eyes.     He  must  have  been  beside  himself  to  give  me  so  many 

details,  for  I  was  far  outside 
of  his  counsels  and  confidence. 
This  scene  lasted  from  seven 
to  eight  minutes.  Napoleon 
then  sent  for  Corvisart  (the 
doctor),  Queen  Hortense, 
Cambaceres,  and  Fouche;  and 
before  he  went  to  his  own 
apartment,  assured  himself  of 
the  condition  of  Josephine  by 
a  visit,  and  found  her  calmer 
and  more  resigned."  * 

In  order  to  obtain  a  legal 
divorce,  it  was  necessary  that 
Josephine  should  formally 
consent  to  it.  Accordingly, 
a  family  gathering  (15th 
Dec.)  was  assembled  of  all 
the  members  then  in  Paris.  B] 
this  time  Eugene  Beauharnai^ 
had  arrived,  and  had  learne( 
from  the  lips  of  his  mothe| 
what  was  determined. 

The  Empress  entered  th( 
hall,  where  all  were  gatherec 
together,  in  a  very  simple 
white  dress,  without  th< 
smallest  ornament,  whereat 
the  Bonaparte  family  wer^ 
all  in  gala  costume.  She  was  pale,  but  calm,  and  leaned  on  the  arm  o 
Queen  Hortense,  who  was  as  wan  as  her  mother,  and  more  agitated.  Prino 
Beauharnais  stood  beside  the  Emperor,  his  arms  crossed,  trembling  so  violently 
that  it  was  feared  he  would  break  down. 

The  Emperor,  in  a  hard,  metallic  voice,  read  a  declaration,  announcing  hi 
resolution  to  separate  from  Josephine  : — 


NAPOLEON    READING. 
A  sketch  from  Nature  by  Girodet. 


"  The  interest  of  the  people,"  he  said,  "  required  that  he  should    leave 
family  to  inherit  his  love  for  them,  and  the  throne  on  which  Providence  had 


*  De  Bausset,  Memoires  anecdoiiques,  &^c.  1827,  i.  370. 


MARIE    LOUISE  405 

placed  him.  For  several  years  he  had  been  hopeless  of  having  children  by  his 
dearly-loved  spouse ;  consequently  he  was  constrained  to  sacrifice  the  softest 
affections  of  his  heart,  so  as  to  consider  only  the  welfare  of  the  State,  and  to 
desire  a  dissolution  of  his  marriage." 

When  Josephine  rose  to  read  the  declaration  that  had  been  prepared  for  her, 
and  which  announced  her  consent,  so  little  in  agreement  with  her  real  senti- 
ments, sobs  broke  her  utterance.  It  was  not  possible  for  her,  in  spite  of  her 
efforts,  to  articulate  a  single  sentence,  and  her  violent  agitation  and  streaming 
tears  gave  a  lie  to  the  words  put  into  her  mouth.  Regnault  de  Saint-Jean 
d'Angely  took  the  paper  from  her  hands,  and  read  the  document. 

Josephine  sank  into  an  arm-chair,  and  remained  in  one  position  through  the 
recital,  leaning  her  elbow  on  a  table.  That  concluded,  she  rose,  wiped  her  eyes, 
and,  with  great  control  of  voice,  pronounced  her  consent ;  then  signed  the  docu- 
ment, and  retired,  leaning  on  the  arm  of  her  daughter.  Prince  Eugene  left  the 
hall  at  the  same  moment,  but,  overcome  by  his  emotion,  sank  insensible  between 
the  double  doors. 

"  During  this  painful  scene  the  Emperor  said  not  a  word,  nor  made  a  sign. 
He  was  immovable  as  a  statue,  his  eyes  fixed,  and  almost  dazed.  He  was  silent 
and  dispirited  all  day.  That  evening,  as  he  was  preparing  to  go  to  bed,  and  I 
was  awaiting  his  last  orders,  suddenly  the  door  opened,  and  I  saw  the  Empress 
enter,  her  hair  in  disorder,  her  face  distracted.  Her  aspect  terrified  me. 
Josephine — but  it  was  no  more  Josephine — advanced,  tottering,  to  the  side 
of  the  Emperor's  bed.  Then  she  fell,  flung  her  arms  round  the  neck  of  His 
Majesty,  and  lavished  on  him  the  tenderest  caresses.  My  emotion  was  inde- 
scribable. The  Emperor  began  to  cry  also.  He  raised  himself,  and  clasped 
Josephine  to  his  heart,  saying, '  Come,  my  good  Josephine,  be  more  reasonable ! 
Come  !  courage  !  courage  !  I  shall  always  be  your  friend,'  stifled  by  sobs.  The 
Empress  was  unable  to  reply.  A  mute  scene  ensued,  which  lasted  several 
minutes,  during  which  their  tears  and  their  sobs  were  mingled,  and  uttered 
more  than  words  could  express.  Finally,  His  Majesty,  rousing  from  his 
emotion  as  from  a  dream,  noticed  me,  and  said,  in  a  voice  broken  with  tears, 
'  Go  outside,  Constant'  I  obeyed.  Presently  I  saw  Josephine  return,  sad,  and 
still  in  tears,  and  making  to  me  a  sign  of  kindly  salutation  as  she  passed.  Then 
I  returned  into  the  bedroom  to  take  away  the  candles.  The  Emperor  was  silent 
as  one  dead,  and  had  so  buried  his  head  in  the  bedclothes,  that  I  could  not  see 
his  face."* 

Next  day  poor  Josephine  left  for  Malmaison.  The  Emperor  provided  that 
she  should  have  a  handsome  provision  made  for  her,  and  that  she  should  retain 
the  title  of  Empress.  She  was  speedily  deserted  by  most  of  her  friends,  and  all 
her  attendants  passed  over  to  the  service  of  her  successor.  On  the  same  day, 
the  1 6th  December,  the  proces-vej^bal  of  this  double  declaration  was  presented 
to  the  Senate,  which  at  once  voted  the  dissolution  of  the  marriage  between 
Napoleon  and  Josephine. 

The  rupture  of  the  religious  tie  was  less  easy.  It  was  necessary  that  some 
flaw  should  be  proved  in  the  marriage  ceremony,  which  had  been  performed  by 
Cardinal    Fesch.     It  was  thought  that — as,  by  the  decree  of  the  Council  of 

*  Constant,  iv.  223. 


4o6        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Trent,  a  marriage  must  be  celebrated  by  the  incumbent  of  the  parish,  or  by 
someone  authorised  by  him — this  would  serve  as  pretext ;  but  Cardinal  Fesch 
frankly  admitted  that  he  had  acted  under  a  dispensation  from  the  Pope.  The 
only  canonical  defect  that  could  be  discovered  w^as  that  Napoleon  had  been 
married  against  his  will ;  and  he  had  the  indecency  to  swear  that  this  was  the 
case;  and  he  produced  the  testimony  of  Duroc,  Talleyrand,  and  Berthier,  to 
show  that  he  had  submitted  to  the  ecclesiastical  ceremony  only  because,  with- 
out it,  the  Pope  had  refused  to  crown  him.  On  this  miserable  plea,  the  eccle- 
siastical court  was  false  enough  to  its  divine  responsibilities  to  decree  the  nullity 
of  the  marriage  which  had  united  Napoleon  to  Josephine. 

Josephine  had  not  loved  Bonaparte  when  she  married  him,  but  she  had 
come  to  throw  all  the  fibres  of  her  affectionate  nature  round  him.  She  had 
clung  to  him  with  passionate  devotion.  His  ardour  had  long  cooled,  but  he 
loved  her  still,  after  his  cold  fashion,  reserving  his  raptures  and  flames  for  illicit 
connections,  which  were  numerous  enough,  but  which  he  concealed  as  much  as 
possible  from  her.     The  story  of  these  attachments  need  not  be  given  here. 

The  Emperor  was  sensibly  relieved  when  the  separation  from  the  elderly 
Josephine  was  accomplished,  and  then  he  looked  forward  with  the  utmost 
impatience  to  his  marriage  with  Marie  Louise,  aged  nineteen. 

"  The  Emperor  then  showed  himself  very  lively,  and  took  more  care  of  his 
appearance.  He  required  me,"  says  Constant,  "to  renew  his  wardrobe,  and 
order  for  him  fresh  suits,  in  a  more  modern  fashion.  His  Majesty  sat  at  the 
same  time  for  his  portrait,  'which  was  taken  to  Marie  Louise  by  the  Prince 
of  Neufchatel.  The  Emperor  received  at  the  same  time  that  of  his  young  wife, 
and  seemed  to  be  enchanted  with  it. 

]  '  "  His  Majesty,  to  please  Marie  Louise,  laid  out  more  money  than  he  had 
hitherto  done  for  any  woman.  One  day  when  alone  with  Queen  Hortense  and 
the  Princess  Stephanie  (of  Baden),  the  latter"  maliciously  asked  him  if  he  could 
waltz.  His  Majesty  replied  that  he  had  never  got  beyond  the  first  lesson. 
*  When  I  was  at  the  Military  School,'  said  he,  '  I  tried  often  to  overcome  the 
spinning  in  my  head  caused  by  it,  and  failed.  Our  dancing  master  advised  us 
to  take  each  a  chair  in  our  arms  and  practise  with  that  in  lieu  of  a  lady.  I 
never  failed  on  such  occasions  to  tumble  down  with  my  chair  that  I  was 
hugging,  and  to  break  it.  The  chairs  not  only  of  my  room,  but  also  of  those 
of  my  comrades,  were  all  broken  by  this  means.'  This  story  provoked  bursts  of 
laughter.  The  Princess  Stephanie  returned  to  the  charge,  and  said,  '  It  is  un- 
fortunate that  your  Majesty  does  not  know  how  to  waltz.  The  German  ladies 
are  madly  in  love  with  that  dance,  and  the  Empress  is  sure  to  partake  of  the 
tastes  of  her  compatriots.  She  may  have  no  other  cavalier  but  your  Majesty, 
and  will  thus  be  deprived  of  a  great  pleasure.'  '  You  are  right,'  answered  the 
Emperor.  '  Come,  give  me  a  lesson.'  He  rose  and  took  some  steps  with  the 
Princess  Stephanie,  humming  the  air  of  the  Queen  of  Prussia.  But  after  two 
or  three  turns,  which  were  clumsily  performed,  the  Princess  of  Baden  halted, 
and  said,  '  Sire,  that  is  enough  to  show  me  that  you  will  always  be  a  bad  pupp. 
You  are  a  man  to  give  lessons,  and  not  to  receive  them.'"* 

The  marriage  took  place  by  proxy  at  Braunau,  on  the  nth  March,  the 
marriage  contracts  having  been  signed  at  Paris  on  February  7th,  and  at  Vienna 

*  Constant,  iv.  247. 


THE    EMPRESS    MARIE    LOUISE. 
By  Gerard. 


MARIE    LOUISE  409 

on  February  i6th,  18 10.     Berthier,  with  the  title  of  Prince  of  Wagram,  acted  as 
proxy.     There  was  lack  of  delicacy  in  sending  a  man  with  such  a  title. 

Marie  Louise  was  tall,  fair-haired,  graceful,  with  blue  eyes.  "  She  is  not 
beautiful,"  said  the  Emperor,  on  a  subsequent  visit  to  Josephine,  "  but  she  is  the 
daughter  of  the  Caesars."  Her  eyes  were  curiously  turned  up  at  the  corners, 
like  those  of  Tartars,  and  the  brows  correspondingly  raised.  What  charm  she 
possessed  was  due  to  her  youth  and  simplicity.  She  had  none  of  the  polished 
grace  and  warmth  of  heart  of  Josephine,  and  certainly  nothing  of  her  exquisite 
tact. 

"  The  Empress  travelled  by  short  relays ;  and  a  fete  awaited  her  in  every 
town  through  which  she  passed.  Every  day  the  Emperor  sent  her  a  letter  from 
his  own  hand,  and  she  replied  regularly.  Her  first  letters  were  very  short,  and 
probably  sufficiently  cold,  for  the  Emperor  said  nothing  about  them,  but  they 
gradually  became  longer  and  warmer,  and  the  Emperor  read  them  with  trans- 
ports of  pleasure.  He  awaited  the  arrival  of  these  letters  with  the  impatience 
of  a  lover  of  twenty  years,  and  was  always  complaining  of  the  slowness  of  the 
couriers,  although  they  killed  their  horses  through  over-expedition."  * 

According  to  the  programme  of  the  etiquette  to  be  observed  on  the  occasion 
of  the  meeting  of  Napoleon  and  Marie  Louise,  they  were  first  to  see  each  other 
at  Compiegne,  where  a  tent  was  erected,  fashioned  like  the  wooden  house  on  the 
river  at  Tilsit,  with  openings  opposite  each  other.  The  official  programme 
directed  :  "  When  their  Imperial  Highnesses  meet  in  the  middle  of  the  tent  (into 
which  they  shall  enter  from  opposite  sides  simultaneously),  then  the  Empress 
shall  incline  to  kneel,  the  Emperor  shall  raise  her  up,  embrace  her,  and  then 
their  Imperial  Majesties  shall  sit  down."t 

But  Napoleon  had  the  good  sense  to  break  through  these  formalities.  After 
the  example  of  Henry  IV.,  when  he  went  to  Lyons  to  meet  his  bride,  Marie  de 
Medicis,  he  had  no  sooner  received  intelligence  of  her  approach  to  Compiegne, 
than,  "  Ohe !  ho  !  Constant,"  said  he  to  his  valet  de  chambre,  "  Order  a  plain 
carriage  without  liveries,  and  help  me  to  dress." 

He  made  his  toilet  with  more  than  usual  care,  "  laughing  like  a  child  at  the 
effect  the  unexpected  interview  would  cause,"  slipped  on  the  grey  redingote  he 
had  worn  at  Wagram,  and  jumped  into  the  carriage.  On  reaching  Courcelles, 
he  passed  the  last  courier  sent  on  to  announce  the  approach  of  the  Empress.  It 
was  raining  in  torrents.  The  Emperor  left  his  carriage  and  stepped  into  the 
church  porch,  and  as  Marie  Louise's  carriage  approached,  he  made  a  sign  to  the 
postilions  to  stop.  Then,  throwing  open  the  carriage  door,  he  caught  Marie 
Louise  in  his  arms,  just  as  she  was  contemplating  his  miniature.  "  Sire,"  said 
she,  after  she  had  looked  hard  at  him,  "  the  painter  has  not  flattered  you."  The 
civil  marriage  was  performed  at  S.  Cloud  with  much  pomp  on  the  ist  April,  and 
then  the  Imperial  couple  started  for  Holland. 

"  Josephine,"  said  Napoleon,  "  was  all  art  and  grace ;  Marie  Louise  was 
natural  simplicity  and  innocence.  The  former  never  for  a  moment  was  without 
the  manner  and  habits  which  made  her  agreeable  and  seductive  .  .  .  the  latter 

*  Constant,  iv.  252.  t  Bausset,  ii.  23. 


4IO 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


never  attempted  anything  but  innocent  artifice.  The  first  was  alwaysfa  little  on 
one  side  of  truth ;  the  second  was  incapable  of  dissimulation.  The  first  asked 
for  nothing,  and  was  always  in  debt ;  the  second  never  hesitated  to  ask  when  she 
was  out  of  pocket,  but  that  was  rarely.  Never  would  she  take  anything  which 
she  knew,  in  conscience,  she  would  not  be  able  to  pay  for.  Both  were  good, 
gentle,  and  much  attached  to  their  husband." 

It  may  be  asked,  "  What  had  Napoleon  gained  by  this  wrong  done  to 
Josephine,  who  had  given  him  the  first  lift  in  life,  by  which  his  fortune  had  been 
made,  and   by  putting  in   her  room    a  daughter    of  the    Caesars?"     Literally 


RECEPTION    OF    MARIE    LOUISE   AT    COMPIEGNE. 


nothing.  He  had  offended  the  Czar,  and  he  had  inflicted  one  humiliation  the 
more  on  Austria.  A  woman's  hair  would  not  bind  together  the  two  Empires. 
Afterwards,  when  an  exile  on  S.  Helena,  Napoleon  recognised  that  in  the  divorce 
of  Josephine  he  had  committed  the  main  error  of  his  life. 

To  this  period  belongs  the  statue  of  Napoleon  by  Canova,  which  came  into 
the  possession  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  Canova  was  in  Paris  at  the  time 
when  Bonaparte  was  First  Consul,'  as  well  as  afterwards  under  the  Empire,  and 
he  modelled  a  bust  of  him,  which  was  an  indifferent  likeness;  unhappily, 
Canova's  mind  was  so  filled  with  classic  traditions,  that  he  could  not  be  true 
to  Nature,  aTid  he  elaborated  a  bust  which  was  very  classical  and  Greek,  but 
not  like  the  original.     From  this  he  adapted  the  head  to  his  colossal  statue. 


MARIE    LOUISE  411 

which  was  sent  to  Paris  in  181 1.  Meneval  says  of  it,  "As  an  object  of  art 
this  statue  is  a  fine  work,  but  owing  to  want  of  resemblance  to  the  original,  and 
to  its  nudity,  it  did  not  please  the  Emperor.  It  was  placed  in  the  Louvre,  but 
not  exposed." 

Bourrienne  gives  as  the  reason  of  the  failure  that  Napoleon  exhibited  such 
restlessness  and  impatience  as  not  to  give  Canova  a  fair  chance  of  catching  his 
likeness.  "  Canova  often  expressed  to  me  his  displeasure  at  not  being  able  to 
study  his  model  as  he  desired,  and  at  the  indifference  of  Bonaparte,  which,  he 
said,  chilled  his  imagination.     All  the  world  agreed  that  he  had  failed." 


XLIV 
ROME 

(1809— i8io) 

^  I  ""HE  anger  of  Napoleon  against  the  Pope  had  been  long  gathering.      It 
^     exhibited  itself  in  peevish  complaints,  brutal  insults,  and  in  letters  devoid 
of  dignity. 

On  January  ist,  1809,  he  wrote  to  Champagny : — 

"  It  is  the  custom  of  the  Pope  to  send  tapers  to  the  various  Powers.  You 
must  write  to  my  agent  at  Rome  that  I  will  not  accept  one.  The  King  of 
Spain,  too,  does  not  want  one.  Write  to  (the  Kings  of)  Naples  and  Holland  to 
refuse  them  likewise.  They  must  not  be  received,  because  the  Papal  Court  had 
the  insolence  not  to  send  them  last  year.  This  is  the  course  I  wish  to  be  taken 
as  concerns  me.  My  charge  d'affaires  will  make  known  that  at  Candlemas  I 
receive  tapers  blessed  by  my  cure ;  that  it  is  neither  the  purple  nor  the  power 
which  gives  a  value  to  those  kinds  of  things.  There  may  be  Popes  as  well  as 
cures  in  hell ;  therefore  the  taper  blessed  by  my  cu7'e  may  be  quite  as  holy  as 
that  of  the  Pope.  I  will  not  receive  those  given  by  the  Pope,  and  all  the 
Princes  of  my  family  shall  follow  my  example." 

The  puerility  of  Napoleon  in  one  of  his  peevish  moods  was  rarely  more 
conspicuous  than  in  this  grotesque  letter. 

Then  he  took  it  on  him  to  lecture  the  Holy  Father  on  his  immorality  in 
negotiating  with  the  English,  who  were  Protestants,  and  on  having  political 
dealings  with  the  Russians,  who  were  Schismatics. 

On  the  17th  May,  1809,  Napoleon  had  issued,  from  "his  Imperial  camp  at 
Vienna,"  the  decree  which  put  an  end  to  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope.  On 
Trinity  Sunday,  June  loth,  the  guns  of  S.  Angelo  announced  to  the  citizens 
that  Rome  had  become  an  Imperial  city.  The  Pope  at  once  launched  an  ex- 
communication, so  prolix,  involved,  and  obscure,  as  to  hurt  no  one.  The 
Empei-or  was  not  named  in  it,  nor  his  ministers  nor  generals ;  it  was  a  bang 
from  a  mortar  charged  with  gunpowder  only,  that  made  a  flash,  and  did  no 
harm.  Yet  the  temerity  of  the  proceeding  so  frightened  Pius  VII. — the  only 
person  it  did  frighten — that  he  hastily  withdrew  the  bull. 

The  Imperial  ensign  was  hoisted  on  the  castle  of  S.  Angelo,  and  half  a 
squadron  of  cavalry  appeared  in  the  Piazza  del  Popolo,  preceded  by  trumpeters. 

412 


ROME  413 

The  trumpets  sounded,  and  a  herald  advanced,  arrayed  in  a  red  coat,  and  read 
the  following  proclamation  : — 

"  Napoleon,  Emperor  of  the  French,  King  of  Italy,  and  Protector  of  the 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  &c. 

"  Considering  that  when  our  august  predecessor,  Charlemagne,  Emperor  of 
the  French,  gave  various  States  and  territories  to  the  Bishops  of  Rome,  he  did 
it  solely  to  increase  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  his  own  States,  and  that 
Rome  by  no  means  ceased  thereby  to  form  a  part  of  his  Empire. 

"  Considering  also  that  the  union  of  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal  powers  in 
the  same  hands,  as  it  is  now,  is  a  source  of  continual  disorders  ;  that  the  Popes 
too  often  avail  themselves  of  the  one  to  sustain  the  pretensions  of  the  other; 
and  that  spiritual  matters,  which  are  by  their  very  nature  immutable,  must  come 
into  opposition  with  terrestrial  affairs,  which  change  according  to  circumstances 
and  the  politics  of  the  time. 

"  Considering,  lastly,  that  all  our  efforts  to  reconcile  the  safety  of  our  armies, 
the  tranquillity  and  well-being  of  our  people,  the  dignity  and  integrity  of  our 
Empire,  with  the  temporal  pretensions  of  the  Pope,  have  been  unavailing. 

"We  have  decreed  and  we  decree  the  following  : — 

"Article  I.     The  States  of  the  Church  are  united  to  the  French  Empire. 

"Article  II.  The  city  of  Rome,  the  first  seat  of  Christianity,  and  so  justly 
famous  for  its  ancient  memories  and  the  grand  monuments  of  antiquity  there 
preserved,  is  declared  a  free  and  Imperial  city.  The  government  and  adminis- 
tration to  be  settled  by  a  special  statute. 

"Article  III.  The  monuments  of  ancient  Roman  greatness  will  be  main- 
tained at  the  expense  of  our  treasury. 

"Article  IV.     The  public  debt  is  declared  the  debt  of  the  Emperor. 

"  Article  V.  The  actual  yearly  income  of  the  Pope  will  be  raised  to  two 
millions  of  francs,  free  of  every  liability. 

"  Article  VI.  The  property  and  the  palaces  of  the  Pope  will  not  only  be 
exempt  from  every  charge  and  imposition,  jurisdiction  or  inspection,  but  will 
enjoy  special  immunities. 

"Article  VII.  A  Special  Commission  will  take  formal  possession  of  the 
States  of  the  Church  in  our  name,  on  the  first  day  of  June  in  the  current  year, 
and  will  so  arrange  matters  that  the  constitutional  form  of  government  shall  be 
in  full  working  order  by  the  ist  January,  18 10." 

The  Pope  was,  as  will  be  seen,  treated  with  generosity,  and  had  he  been  a 
man  of  apostolic  spirit  and  broad  intellect,  he  would  have  rejoiced  to  be  freed 
from  the  obligations  of  a  temporal  sovereignty,  which  in  its  direct  effect  on 
the  welfare  of  the  population  of  the  Papal  States  was  as  lowering  to  the 
credit  of  the  Church,  as  in  the  indirect  moral  effect  it  had  on  adherents  through- 
out Europe.  But  the  words  addressed  to  S.  Peter  were  prophetic  of  his  reputed 
successors.  "  Thou  savourest  not  the  things  that  be  of  God,  but  those  that  be 
of  men."  As  Pius  VII.  was  seated  in  his  carriage  to  leave  Rome,  he  raised  his 
hands  with  a  sudden  exclamation  of  despair,  "  I  forgot  to  bring  away  any 
money ! "  Then,  recovering  himself,  he  added,  "  This  may  be  called  a  truly 
apostolic  journey."  * 

Miollis,  the  French  general  in  command  in  Rome,  answered  the  excom- 
munication by  sending  the  Pope  to  Savona.     This  was  an  act  of  excess  of  zeal, 

*  Salvagni's  La  Corie,  &'c.,  iii.  c.  37. 


414        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

and  Napoleon  at  once  declared  that  the  removal  of  the  Pope  was  contrary  to  his 
wishes.  "  It  is  a  great  folly,"  he  wrote  to  Fouche,  on  the  i8th  June,  "and  I  am 
much  annoyed  at  it";  and  to  Cambaceres,  on  the  23rd  June,  "It  was  without 
my  orders,  and  against  my  will,  that  the  Pope  has  been  taken  from  Rome." 
However,  as  the  removal  had  been  effected,  he  did  not  advise  that  he  should  be 
sent  back. 

The  proclamation  of  the  union  of  the  States  of  the  Church  with  the  King- 
dom of  Italy  caused  vast  rejoicings  in  the  people,  who  saw  therein  a  promise  of 
life  and  activity,  after  the  death  or  stupefaction  caused  by  priestly  rule. 

No  sooner  was  the  Pope  gone,  than  a  clean  sweep  was  made  of  the  old 
regime.  The  police  force  was  reorganised,  senators  appointed,  the  law  courts 
reformed,  the  army  set  on  a  new  footing,  and  the  system  of  finance  over- 
hauled ;  and  so  rapidly  and  effectually  was  all  this  done,  that  by  the  15th  August 
the  Administration  was  in  good  working  order.  The  monopolies,  which  had 
pressed  so  heavily  on  the  people,  were  done  away  with.  The  House  of  Albani  no 
longer  enjoyed  the  exclusive  right  to  manufacture  pins;  Andrea  Novelli  was  not 
allowed  to  be  the  only  man  to  fill  the  lamps  of  the  Romans  ;  the  ferryboats 
ceased  to  be  the  exclusive  property  of  Alexandre  Betti ;  rags  and  paper  were 
free  to  everyone.  The  city,  which  had  been  in  physical  as  well  as  intellectual 
darkness,  was  now  furnished  with  lamps.  The  right  of  sanctuary  exercised  by 
the  cardinals  was  abolished. 

The  captivity  of  Pius  VII.  at  Savona  was  the  prelude  to  other  measures  for 
the  transformation  of  the  Church.  The  Emperor  was  afraid  lest  the  cardinals 
should  make  an  attempt  to  supply  the  vacancy  in  the  See.  He  therefore 
ordered  that  their  college  should  be  removed  to  Paris.  They  showed  their 
anger  by  abstaining  from  occupying  the  seats  prepared  for  them  in  the  long 
gallery  of  the  Louvre,  where  the  religious  ceremony  of  the  marriage  was  per- 
formed, after  Napoleon  had  been  united  to  Marie  Louise,  civilly,  and  by  proxy. 
There  were  twenty-seven  cardinals  then  in  Paris,  and  very  few  occupied  their 
stalls.  Napoleon's  eagle  eye  at  once  perceived  the  vacancies,  and  he  asked. 
Where  are  my  cardinals  ?  "  and  then  he  muttered,  "  The  fools  !  the  fools  !  " 

Frightened  at  the  report  of  his  anger,  they  crowded  to  his  reception  at  the 
Tuileries  on  the  morrow,  whence  Napoleon  indignantly  swept  them  out,  and 
deprived  them  of  their  scarlet  habits. 

On  the  25th  February,  18 10,  the  Emperor  issued  a  decree,  repeating  the  four 
famous  clauses  of  the  Charter  of  the  Gallican  clergy,  assuring  the  independence 
and  liberty  of  the  National  Church,  which  were  expounded  in  all  the  schools 
of  the  Empire.  Then  the  Chapter  of  Paris  voted  an  address  to  Napoleon,  in 
which  they  declared  that  the  head  of  the  State  was  not  subordinate,  in  any 
of  his  acts,  to  the  head  of  the  Church,  the  latter  being  a  subject  of  the  Emperor, 
and  therefore  bound  to  obey  his  laws.  But  although  Napoleon  found  a  ferment 
of  the  old  Gallican  spirit  among  the  bishops  and  clergy  of  France,  yet  he  had 
fatally  injured  the  cause  of  the  Church  by  the  Concordat;  and  Pius  VII.  now 
used  the  power  admitted  by  that  compact,  to  refuse  to  confirm  the  nominations 
made  to  vacant  bishoprics,  so  that  a  considerable  number  of  sees  were  left  with- 


ROME  415 

out  their  spiritual  heads.  This  was  all  that  the  Pope  ventured  to  do.  It  was 
an  unscrupulous  manner  of  resenting  an  injury,  thus  to  deprive  dioceses  of  their 
spiritual  pastors,  to  paralyse  the  system  of  parochial  organisation  and  the 
supply  of  priests  to  vacant  benefices  ;  but  it  was  the  only  method  whereby  he 
was  able  to  annoy  the  Emperor. 

It  is  instructive  to  note  the  eagerness  with  which  certain  writers  have  seized 
on  Napoleon's  harsh  treatment  of  the  Pope,  and  confiscation  of  the  States  of 
the  Church,  as  synchronising  with  the  decline  of  the  fortunes  of  the  Emperor, 
and  have  endeavoured  to  trace  in  them  a  sequence  of  cause  and  effect.  Even 
a  man  of  Alison's  intelligence  could  not  resist  the  temptation.  It  is  easy  to 
point  out  that  the  declension  of  Napoleon's  power,  the  disasters  which  crowded 
on  him  and  ended  in  his  ruin,  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  his  treatment 
of  the  Pope,  and  are  explicable  on  other  grounds,  so  obvious  and  distinct,  that 
to  associate  the  one  with  the  other  shows  an  inexcusable  blindness  to  facts,  or 
bias  in  their  treatment. 

Napoleon  had  been  carried  into  power  on  the  wave  of  French  national 
feeling,  now  expended,  while  on  all  sides  angry  and  threatening  rose  the 
nationalities  released  by  him.  His  fall  was  inevitable,  from  the  moment  that 
he  had  roused  Portuguese,  Spaniards,  Austrians,  Germans,  and  Russians  to  a 
consciousness  of  their  several  national  existences,  and  of  the  vital  force  inherent 
in  them  each  as  a  nation,  at  the  very  moment  when  he  had  pulverised  liberty  in 
France  herself  In  the  great  upheaval.  Southern  Italy  alone  was  torpid.  There, 
in  a  people  rendered  debased,  superstitious,  unmanly,  by  past  misgovernment, 
the  seeds  of  true  national  life  hardly  existed,  or  were  only  now  strewn,  and  had 
not  as  yet  had  time  to  germinate.  Later,  indeed,  they  appeared,  and  have  pro- 
duced the  United  Italy  of  to-day. 

What  Napoleon  had  set  before  him  was  a  just  object — the  union  of  Italy, 
but  the  time  for  that  union  was  not  yet  arrived.  An  Italy  without  Rome 
would  be  a  body  without  a  heart.  The  temporal  sovereignty  of  the  Pope  was 
worse  than  an  anachronism  ;  it  was  a  political  crime  protracted  from  year  to 
year.  A  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits.  The  fruits  of  Papal  sovereignty  had 
been  the  debasement  of  the  Italian  people  under  its  rule  to  the  lowest  degree 
of  degradation  to  which  man  can  be  brought,  who  had  once  been  civilised,  and 
lives  among  traditions  of  his  former  high  estate.  The  temporal  power  debased 
those  subjects  to  it,  and  depraved  the  rulers.  It  was  a  tree  that  had  brought 
forth  apples  of  Sodom  ;  nay,  worse  than  that,  rank  poison. 

Napoleon,  however,  acted  with  too  great  precipitation,  and  time  for  his 
experiment  to  work  out  results  was  not  granted. 

On  March  31st,  18 14,  Pius  VII.  re-entered  the  States  of  the  Church,  and 
the  sheet  of  lead  was  recast  over  the  reviving  nationality.  In  a  proclamation, 
he  communicated  his  reactionary  intentions.  Some  of  his  promises  may  be 
quoted  : — 

The  abolition  of  the  Code  Napoleon,  and  the  re-establishment  of  Pontifical 
legislation. 

The  abolition  of  all  the  newly-instituted  tribunals. 


4i6        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  abolition  of  all  municipal  rights. 

The  restoration  of  the  property  of  suppressed  religious  communities. 

The  re-establishment  of  sanctuaries  for  malefactors. 

The  Edict  concluded  with  these  words : — 

*'  Fortunate  subjects  of  the  Holy  See,  and  of  a  Pontiff  so  grand,  so  generous, 
so  holy !  from  these  traits  you  may  judge  of  the  happiness  which  awaits  you. 
It  will  be  completed  when  the  moment  you  so  greatly  desire  shall  have  arrived, 
and  you  see  your  beloved  sovereign  again.  You  will  receive  him  with  devout 
exultation,  and  your  tears  of  love  and  gratitude  will  render  you  more  than  ever 
worthy  of  those  stupendous  gifts  he  will  pour  upon  you  with  no  niggard  hand." 

Promises  of  real  benefits  were  made,  as  the  abolition  of  feudal  rights  (31st 
March),  but  were  not  kept.  On  July  30th,  the  order  was  issued  "that  every 
baron  should  resume  his  feudal  jurisdiction,  with  all  his  rights  and  privileges." 
The  proclamation  of  Pius  might  well  have  been  headed  with  the  text  from 
Jeremiah,  "  While  ye  look  for  light,  he  will  turn  it  into  the  shadow  of  death,  and 
make  it  gross  darkness." 


XLV 
THE    CONTINENTAL   SYSTEM 

/^N  the  17th  March,  181 1,  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  Marie  Louise  became 
^^  the  mother  of  a  son,  and  the  joy  of  Napoleon  seemed  to  be  fulfilled.  The 
young  Prince  was  to  be  King  of  Rome,  and  it  appeared  as  though  Fortune 
favoured  the  Emperor,  and  promised  that  his  dynasty  should  continue. 

But  at  that  very  time  the  whole  structure  raised  by  him  was  tottering  to  its 
fall.  His  generals,  dazzled  by  his  successes,  did  not  see  this,  but  statesmen  did. 
Wellington,  behind  the  lines  of  Torres  Vedras,  was  certain  of  it ;  Talleyrand,  in 
his  country  house,  only  wondered  that  it  did  not  fall  to  pieces  faster. 

"  Marmont,"  said  Decres,  "  you  see  everything  in  a  rosy  light.  May  I  put 
before  you  the  truth,  and  unveil  to  you  the  future?  The  Emperor  is  mad, 
wholly  mad.  He  will  upset  us  all,  and  the  end  will  be  an  overwhelming 
catastrophe." 

The  members  of  the  Rhenish  Confederation  were  oppressed  with  exactions. 
The  future  of  their  populations  was  menaced  by  the  drain  of  young  men  for 
the  field,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  country  jeopardised  by  the  Continental 
System. 

"  It  is  coming  to  this,"  said  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  "  that  we  shall  have  to 
lock  up  our  houses,  put  the  key  under  the  door,  and  run  away." 

Prussia  had  been  torn  to  shreds,  and  nursed  projects  of  vengeance  in  her 
heart.  Although  forbidden  to  maintain  more  than  a  moderate  army,  she  evaded 
the  decree  by  passing  all  her  male  population  in  succession  through  the  ranks. 

Into  the  flank  of  the  Empire  was  driven  the  iron  wedge'  of  Wellington's 
little  army,  entrenched  in  such  a  position  that  it  could  not  be  expelled.  The 
English  general  waited  behind  his  lines,  in  confidence  that  the  time  was  near 
when  all  Europe  would  again  be  in  flames.  Meanwhile  he  was  teaching  a  lesson 
to  the  enemies  of  Napoleon  how  to  meet  him,  by  threatening  his  communica- 
tions, and  opposing  to  him  a  method  of  resistance  that  avoided  pitched  battles, 
dispirited  his  troops,  and  took  from  the  marshals  the  glory  of  victories — a  lesson 
shortly  to  be  put  in  practice  in  Russia. 

This  latter  Empire  was  by  no  means  well  disposed  towards  Napoleon.  The 
Russian  people  were  ill-satisfied  at  seeing  their  Czar  on  good  terms  with  the 
Corsican.  There  existed  among  them  an  hereditary  hatred  of  the  Poles,  and 
the  creation  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw  was,  as  they  believed,  an  earnest 

2    E  417 


4i8        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

of  a  re-establishment  of  the  Polish  kingdom.  The  annexation  of  Austrian- 
Galicia  to  this  Duchy,  in  accordance  with  the  stipulations  of  the  Treaty  of 
Vienna,  had  further  excited  their  apprehensions.  Indeed,  Napoleon  ought  to  have 
seen,  in  the  eagerness  with  which  Austria  shifted  Galicia  from  her  shoulders,  that 
Francis  anticipated  an  advantage  thereby ;  but,  in  his  impatience  to  have  the 
peace  concluded,  and  in  his  desire  to  do  something  more  for  the  Poles,  who  had 
served  him.  Napoleon  overlooked  the  danger.  Alexander,  suspicious  and 
irritated,  was  further  offended  by  the  cavalier  manner  in  which  he  had  been 
treated  relative  to  the  marriage. 

The  Emperor  had  probably  some  idea  that  the  incorporation  of  Galicia  with 
the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw  would  cause  irritation  in  Russia  ;  and  on  the  same 
day  on  which  the  Treaty  of  Vienna  was  signed  (20th  Oct.,  1809),  he  made  the 
extraordinary  proposal  to  the  Czar  that  he  should  concur  with  him  in  "  causing 
the  names  of  Poland  and  Polish  to  disappear,  not  only  out  of  every  transaction, 
but  even  out  of  history." 

Alexander,  by  this  time,  had  seen  through  the  character  of  his  ally,  and  his 
enthusiastic  friendship  for  him  had  considerably  cooled.  He  had  learned 
■thoroughly  to  mistrust  his  word,  and  to  be  on  his  guard  against  his  ambition. 
He  had  consented  to  Russia  entering  the  league  against  English  commerce,  and 
the  inconvenience  was  seriously  felt  by  his  people. 

In  Portugal,  Wellington  was  anticipating  that  after  the  conclusion  of  the  war 
with  Austria,  the  troops  that  had  been  victorious  at  Wagram  would  be  poured 
into  the  Peninsula,  and  that  the  Emperor  would  place  himself  at  their  head. 
This  also  was  the  expectation  of  all  Europe,  and  it  explains  the  timidity  of  the 
English  Ministry.  But  to  the  surprise  of  everyone,  instead  of  doing  this, 
Napoleon  sent  the  major  part  of  the  troops  thus  set  free,  to  guard  the  seaboard 
from  Antwerp  to  Danzig,  converting  them  practically  into  a  coastguard-force 
against  the  importation  of  English  and  colonial  goods. 

He  made  little  account  of  the  genius  of  Wellington  ;  he  knew  that  the  army 
at  his  disposal  numbered  hardly  25,000  men,  that  is  to  say,  Englishmen ;  the 
Portuguese  and  Spanish  contingents  he  considered  wholly  unimportant.  For 
the  same  reason  he  grudged  reinforcements,  and  on  the  principle  he  had  laid 
down  that  a  country  occupied  should  pay  for  the  force  occupying  it,  regardless 
that  the  Peninsula  was  exhausted,  he  withheld  likewise  the  provisions  that  were 
necessary  for  its  support.  It  was  the  way  with  Napoleon  to  concentrate  his 
thoughts  on  one  matter  at  a  time,  and  this  largely  tended  to  his  success.  But 
what  succeeded  in  warfare,  did  not  succeed  in  State  policy.  He  was  now  more 
than  ever  resolved  on  perfecting  his  continental  blockade,  and  in  order  to  do 
this,  he  neglected  to  take  personal  command  of  his  armies  in  the  Peninsula. 
When  he  had  completed  his  arrangements  for  closing  all  Europe  to  the  English, 
then,  if  the  work  had  not  already  been  accomplished  by  Soult,  Massena,  or 
Ney,  it  would  be  time  for  him  to  enter  the  field,  and  by  one  masterly  engagement 
throw  the  English  into  the  sea. 

The  decree  against  English  commerce  had  been  issued  at  Berlin.  In  1807, 
after  his  return  from  Poland,  Napoleon  paid  a  visit  to  Italy,  and  from  Milan 


MARIE   LOUISE  AND  THE   YOUNG   KING  OF   ROME, 
From  a  painting  by  Franque. 


THE    CONTINENTAL   SYSTEM 


421 


issued  a  second  decree,  extending  and  aggravating  the  clauses  of  the  first,  as  an 
answer  to  the  British  Orders  in  Council,  which  put  an  end  to  the  immunity  which 
had  been  enjoyed  by  the  vessels  of  neutral  Powers.  Such  Powers,  as  the  British 
Government  justly  argued,  had  become  accomplices  when  accepting  the  dictation 
of  Bonaparte,  and  must  take  the  consequences.  Napoleon  by  his  second  decree 
struck  not  only  at  the  English  trade,  but  also  at  those  American  vessels  which 
had  submitted  to  be  searched,  or  had  touched  at  any  English  port.  On  the  same 
day  on  which  the  Milan  decree  was  signed  (December  17th,  1807),  he  wrote  to 
Vice-Admiral  Decres  ordering  the  detention  of  a  Russian  vessel  which  had  put 
into  Morlaix,  because,  if  really    Russian,   she   would    inevitably  be  taken    by 


BAPTISM   OF   THE   KING   OF    ROME. 
From  a  drawing  by  Gonbaut. 


English  cruisers,  and  if  she  used  the  Russian  flag  merely  as  a  protection,  she 
deserved  detention. 

One  of  Napoleon's  brothers  protested  that  this  system  "  was  more  likely  to 
ruin  France  than  England,"  and  Talleyrand  declared  that  if  it  should  succeed, 
the  ruin  of  the  English  Constitution  would  be  the  most  serious  disaster  that 
could  happen  to  Europe.  It  was  to  enforce  this  vendetta  against  England 
that  fire  and  sword  were  carried  through  Europe  from  Portugal  to  Russia,  and 
that  Napoleon  dashed  himself  against  the  laws  of  Political  Economy,  and  was 
broken  to  pieces. 

"When  Napoleon,"  s^iys  Lanfrey,  "had  published  his  two  decrees  of  Berlin 
and  Milan  ;  the  former,  by  which  he  declared  that  England  was  blockaded,  and 
that  at  a  time  when  he  was  not  able  to  hold  a  single  ship  on  the  seas  ;  the 


422 


THE  LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE 


second,  by  which  he  denationalised,  and  declared  liable  to  be  taken  as  prizes, 
all  vessels  belonging  to  neutral  Powers,  which  submitted  to  the  Orders  in 
Council  of  the  British  Admiralty,  and  accepted  their  licences  to  sail  unmolested, 
it  was  supposed  to  be  a  sort  of  bravado  on  his  part,  and  an  attempt  at  intimida- 
tion, rather  than  a  determined  system  that  was  to  be  carried  into  execution.  It 
was,  in  fact,  difficult  to  imagine  that  a  man  with  so  penetrating  a  genius, 
after  having  recognised  the  impossibility  of  conquering  England  on  the  high 
seas,  should  have  conceived   the  foolish  idea  of  forcing  her  to  capitulate  by 


THE    HOPE   OF    THE   FRENCH    EMPIRE. 
From  a  contemporary  engraving. 

stopping  all  the  mouths  ot  commerce  on  the  Continent.  The  first  condition 
for  realising  such  a  dream  was  that  Napoleon  should  be  absolute  master 
on  the  Continent,  and  even  then,  that  hypothesis  being  admitted,  the  execution 
would  have  been  very  difficult.  Now  in  1807  and  1808,  the  Emperor  was  far 
from  being  that.  The  continental  blockade,  when  first  announced,  had  seemed 
to  be  a  threat,  an  attempt  on  paper  to  make  a  reprisal,  a  final  echo  of  the 
miserable  declamations  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety.  It  was  further  so 
considered,  because  at  first  it  was  observed  with  laxity,  especially  during  the 
war  with  Austria. 

"But  this  illusion  was  of  short  duration.     No  sooner  was  the  peace  signed 
than  Napoleon  reverted  with  ardour  keener  than   ever  to  this,  his  favourif 


THE    CONTINENTAL   SYSTEM  423 

scheme,  and  he  proudly  announced  that  it  was  his  resolve  to  have  the  blockade 
maintained  in  its  rigour. 

"  To  understand  this  system  in  its  full  severity,  it  is  necessary  to  know  what 
were  its  practical  consequences.  What  it  really  implied  was  not  only,  as  it 
seemed  to  be,  the  interdiction  of  English  commerce,  but  that  of  all  maritime 
commerce  whatsoever.  The  first  effect  of  the  measures  commanded  by  Napoleon 
had  been  the  annihilation  or  immobilisation  of  the  commercial  marine  of  all  the 
ancient  neutral  Powers.  No  commerce  was  possible  except  through  England. 
The  blockade  meant  not  only  the  privation  of  manufactured  goods  of  English 
make,  but  the  absolute  prohibition  of  all  those  colonial  products  which,  in  the 
North  especially,  had  become  objects  of  prime  necessity,  as  sugar,  cotton,  coffee, 
tobacco,  tea,  spices,  woods  for  dyeing,  so  necessary  for  manufacturers,  and  of 
pharmaceutic  products,  such  as  quinine ;  finally,  of  salt  itself,  which  in  some 
lands,  such  as  Sweden,  only  arrived  by  sea. 

"But  these  were  not  the  sole  inconveniences.     At  the  same  time  that  these 

precious  importations  from  more  favoured  regions  were  forbidden  entry  into  the 

Northern  lands,  their  exports  were  stopped  ;  for  their  natural  produce  of  iron, 

building  timber,  tar,  were  capable  of  transport  only  by  water.     Land  carriage 

•tripled  their  cost,  and  created  a  veritable  prohibition. 

"  Thus  the  continental  blockade  meant,  for  the  majority  of  the  European 
States,  the  destruction  of  their  commerce  and  of  all  great  manufactures,  the 
privation  of  necessaries  of  life,  the  loss  of  ships  and  of  colonies ;  it  meant, 
in  one  word,  misery  and  ruin.  Finally,  on  them  was  imposed  a  whole  series  of 
insupportable  vexations,  for  the  prohibited  merchandise  was  not  only  confiscated 
on  the  frontiers,  but  was  hunted  after  and  seized  even  in  private  houses.  And 
with  good  cause  has  it  been  affirmed,  especially  with  reference  to  Germany,  that 
the  Continental  System  served,  far  more  than  did  conquest,  to  rouse  the  people 
against  France."  * 

Bourrienne,  who  was  French  Minister  at  Hamburg,  had  ample  opportunity 
for  judging  of  the  effect  of  this  mischievous  system.  It  encouraged  smuggling 
among  the  people  on  the  frontier  and  fraud  among  the  officials.  On  the  coast 
of  Oldenburg,  he  says,  the  trade  with  England  was  carried  on  uninterruptedly. 
When  the  custom-house  officers  succeeded  in  seizing  contraband  goods,  fights 
ensued,  in  which  they  sometimes  came  off  worst.  On  July  2nd,  1809,  for 
instance,  the  officers  captured  eighteen  waggons  laden  with  English  goods  at 
Brinkam  ;  but  the  peasantry  armed,  fell  on  the  officers,  and  recaptured  the 
entire  convoy. 

In  Hamburg,  about  6,000  persons  of  the  lower  orders  were  employed  in 
smuggling.  They  passed  backwards  and  forwards  between  Altona  and  Ham- 
burg some  twenty  times  a  day,  conveying  contraband  goods  into  the  town. 

On  the  left  of  the  road  were  sand-pits,  whence  sand  was  extracted  for  laying 
on  the  streets.  The  smugglers  filled  the  sand-pits  with  brown  sugar,  and  the 
little  carts,  which  usually  conveyed  the  'sand  into  Hamburg,  were  filled  with 
sugar. 

Then  a  sudden  mortality  seemed  to  have  broken  out  among  the  poor,  and  the 
number  of  funeral  processions  which  passed  in  and  out  of  the  gates  created  both 
surprise  and  alarm.  On  a  hearse  being  arrested  and  examined,  it  was  found 
stuffed  with  coffee,  vanilla,  and  indigo. 

*  Lanfrey,  v.  237. 


424        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Napoleon  found  it  impossible  to  maintain  the  system  in  all  its  rigour  in 
France,  the  fertility  of  which,  and  its  favourable  climate,  rendered  it  more 
capable  of  enduring  the  privation  of  colonial  goods  than  Germany,  Sweden,  and 
Russia ;  and  he  devised  a  means  of  signing  licences,  which  empowered  trading 
vessels  to  import  foreign  goods  into  France,  on  condition  that  they  exported  an 
equivalent  of  French  goods.  But  this  did  not  succeed.  England  was,  indeed, 
ready  enough  to  receive  French  wines,  but  it  refused  French  silks ;  and  it  was  a 
common  practice  to  lade  a  vessel  with  old  and  damaged  silks  of  French  manu- 
facture, throw  them  into  the  sea,  and  return  laden  with  articles  supplied  by 
England. 

The  scandalous  feature  in  this  organised  fraud  on  the  system  he  had  himself 
invented  and  enforced,  was  that  Napoleon  derived  an  enormous  profit  from 
exemptions,  and  felt  no  scruple  whatever  in  ruining  honest  traders  by  granting 
monopolies.  The  agents  under  him  followed  his  example.  But  in  violating  his 
own  laws,  he  intended  to  reserve  all  the  benefits  of  transgression  for  himself,  and 
he  pursued  with  savage  resentment  everyone  else,  his  brother  and  brother-in- 
law  included,  who  would  not  enforce  his  decrees,  and  punish  every  infraction. 

This  intolerable  system  gave  him  an  opportunity  to  meddle  with,  hector,  and 
browbeat  all  the  kings,  princes,  and  grand  dukes  under  his  control,  and  afforded 
him  at  any  moment  an  excuse  for  deposing  them,  and  annexing  or  parcelling  out 
their  lands.  In  1809,  when  Sweden  concluded  peace  with  Russia,  Napoleon 
exacted,  in  return  for  Stralsund  and  Pomerania,  which  were  occupied  by  his 
troops,  that  she  should  enter  into  the  Continental  System.  To  Sweden,  colonial 
produce  was  of  prime  necessity,  and  to  enforce  his  blockade  was  to  kill  her  iron 
manufacture,  and  to  deny  her  people  the  necessaries  of  life.  This  soon  mani- 
fested itself,  and  the  blockade  was  very  inadequately  enforced. 

Napoleon,  who  was  made  aware  by  his  agents  and  spies  of  all  infractions  of 
his  decrees,  complained  a  very  few  months  after  the  signature  of  the  treaty.  He 
demanded  the  expulsion  of  the  English  consuls,  and  the  seizure  of  colonial 
merchandise.  "  My  intention  is,"  added  he,  "  to  make  war  against  Sweden 
rather  than  endure  to  be  insulted  by  her,"  *  and  a  month  later,  he  peremptorily 
informed  the  Swedish  Minister  in  Paris  that  he  would  have  his  passports 
sent  him  if  the  Regent  delayed  any  longer  the  execution  of  the  Convention 
relative  to  the  blockade. 

In  his  blundering  notions  of  social  economy,  Napoleon  thought  by  the 
blockade  to  profit  France,  by  sealing  up  the  mouths  of  the  German  and  other 
rivers.  He  hoped  to  establish  an  industrial  and  commercial  monopoly  for 
France,  or  rather  for  himself  and  his  own  creatures.  All  seized  goods  fell  to  him, 
and  he  granted  licences  to  certain  firms  to  manufacture  the  coffees,  and  use  the 
dyes,  which  by  this  means  came  into  his  possession  ;  and  as  these  imports  were 
forbidden  everywhere  else,  he  supposed  that  the  Continent  would  have  to  come 
to  France  for  all  its  manufactured  cotton  goods  and  dyed  silks.  Speculators 
calculated  on  this,  and  were  ready  to  pay  large  sums  to  him  for  these  privileges. 
But  the  English,  who  had  become  absolute  masters  of  commerce,  by  the  very 

*  To  Champagny,  i6th  May,  i8io. 


THE    CONTINENTAL   SYSTEM  425 

measures  Napoleon  had  adopted  against  the  neutral  Powers,  sold  their  wares  at 
enormous  prices  to  those  who  were  licensed  to  buy  of  them.  They  sold  a  pound 
of  sugar,  which  cost  them  fivepence,  for  four  or  five  francs.  The  merchant  who 
paid  this  sum  had  also  to  add  to  the  cost  what  his  licence  had  cost  him,  and  to 
make  some  profit  for  himself.  It  may  be  conceived  that  these  products,  when 
brought  into  the  market,  were  thus  placed  at  a  price  that  was  beyond  the  means 
of  all  save  the  very  rich.  The  result  was  that  people  learned  to  do  without 
them,  or  bought  only  such  as  could  be  smuggled  into  the  land.  The  manu- 
facturers were  obliged  to  discharge  their  workmen ;  the  banks,  which  had 
advanced  them  capital,  could  not  recover  their  loans,  and  were  compelled  to 
suspend  payment ;  and  the  financial  crisis,  that  had  been  averted  only  by  the 
victory  of.  Austerlitz,  again  threatened  France. 

In  spite  of  evidence  to  the  contrary.  Napoleon  insisted  in  believing  that  he 
was  strangling  England  by  his  Continental  System.  The  result  of  the  blockade, 
and  of  his  measures  against  the  neutral  powers,  was  that  England  had  been 
freed  from  competition  ;  and  although  there  was,  indeed,  a  glut  of  good  things 
from  the  East  and  West  Indies  in  England,  yet  this  was  only  temporary,  and 
with  a  little  ingenuity,  and  with  the  connivance  of  the  authorities  in  the  several 
States,  all  this  superfluity  was,  little  by  little,  sure  of  infiltration  into  the 
countries  that  demanded  them  as  requisites  of  existence. 

Russia  suffered  very  severely  from  the  embargo  placed  on  the  English  trade. 
It  was  inevitable  that  Alexander  should  discover  how  that,  in  France,  what 
was  so  severely  exacted  of  him  was  not  enforced,  and  that  Napoleon  was  en- 
deavouring, by  his  blockade,  to  produce  a  monopoly  in  produce  for  his  own 
special  benefit.  The  Czar  complained,  and  pointed  out  that  the  results  of  this 
system  were  ruin  to  Russia,  and  that  the  granting  of  licences  to  favoured 
persons  and  firms  in  France  was  an  intolerable  breach  of  the  contract. 

Napoleon  answered  by  denying  what  was  an  open  secret.  It  was  true,  he 
said,  that  he  did  give  licences,  permitting  the  export  of  French  produce,  such 
as  corn  and  wine,  but  he  absolutely  denied  that  he  did  so  for  imports.* 

*  To  Champagny,  Feb.  i8th,  1810. 


XLVI 
GREATNESS    OR    LITTLENESS 


A  T  this  point,  before  coming  to  the  rupture  with  Russia,  we  may  pause  for 
-^  ^  a  moment,  to  look  a  Httle  more  closely  at  Napoleon  himself,  his  surround- 
ings, his  private  life,  and  the  workings  of  his  mind. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  see,  running  through  his  conduct,  a  vein  of  savage 
irritation  against  England.  It  was  this  which  prompted  his  Continental  System, 
and  drove  him  to  his  ruin.  This  hatred  of  his  was  constantly  fed,  and  that  un- 
necessarily. The  English  press  poured  forth  the  bile  of  the  emigres^  and  the 
British  people  enjoyed  their  laugh  at  "  Old  Boney,"  when  presented  in  the 
caricatures  of  Gillray  and  Cruikshank.  But  he  himself  forfeited  all  right  of 
complaining  of  the  attacks  of  the  English  press,  by  dictating  the  most  scurrilous 
articles  against  George  III.  and  the  British  Government.  In  an  article  in  the 
Moniteur^  he  asserted  that  George  Cadoudal  had  received  the  Order  of  the 
Bath  for  attempting  to  assassinate  him,  and  that  he  would  have  been  honoured 
with  the  Garter  had  he  succeeded.  He  actually  kept  Mounier  and  twelve 
clerks  at  work,  extracting,  translating,  and,  abridging  the  pamphlets  and  news- 
paper notices  that  were  launched  against  him  from  England,  and  the  com- 
positions of  the  caricaturists  were  regularly  transmitted  to  him,  rousing  him  to 
transports  of  fury.  . 

Napoleon  was  mentally  incapable  of  understanding  a  joke,  especially  one 
levelled  at  himself.  He  was  suspicious  and  jealous  of  those  who  surrounded 
him.  He  employed  spies  to  watch  even  his  most  faithful  friends,  and,  with  the 
inquisitiveness  of  a  low-class  servant-maid,  peered  into  their  private  corre- 
spondence. He  had  no  more  devoted  adherent  than  Junot ;  yet  even  he  was 
subjected  to  the  indignity  of  being  watched  and  reported  on. 

One  day,  as  Napoleon  stood  at  a  window,  he  noticed  that  one  of  his  officers 
stooped  and  picked  up  and  studied  a  bit  of  paper.  His  suspicions  were  at  once 
aroused,  and  he  despatched  an  aide-de-camp  to  summon  the  officer  into  his 
presence,  and  learn  from  him  what  was  on  the  scrap  of  paper.*  If  he  saw  two 
persons  whisper  or  look  significantly  at  each  other,  he  insisted  on  questioning 
them,  to  twist  out  of  them  what  they  had  said,  or  what  they  meant  by  the  look. 
As  it  may  be  recollected,  his  ever-watchful  suspicion  bade  him  observe  and 
comment  on  Madame  Junot  wearing  dark  velvet  at  his  coronation. 

*  Secret  Memoirs,  p.  229. 
426 


GREATNESS   OR    LITTLENESS 


427 


In  conversation  with  ladies,  he  was  not  only  rude,  but  coarse.  Madame  de 
Remusat  says,  "  He,  who  never  esteemed  women,  always  professed  positive 
veneration  for  Hortense  (Beauharnais).  In  her  presence,  his  language  was 
always  careful  and  decent.  '  Hortense,'  he  said  more  than  once,  '  compels  me 
to  believe  in  virtue.'  When  General  Bonaparte  was  in  high  spirits,  he  was. 
equally  devoid  of  taste  and  moderation,  and  on  such  occasions  his  manners 
smacked  of  the  barrack-room." 


NAPOLEON    At   THE   THEATRE. 
From  a  sketch  taken  from  life  by  Girodet,  April  13,  1812. 


"During  his  journey  in  Italy,  the  idleness  of  life  in  palaces  and  its  oppor- 
tunities had  given  rise  to  several  gallant  adventures  on  his  part,  which  were 
more  or  less  serious,  and  these  had  been  duly  reported  in  France,  where  they 
fed  the  general  appetite  for  gossip.  One  day,  when  several  ladies  of  the  Court 
— among  them  those  who  had  been  in  Italy — were  breakfasting  with  the 
Empress,  Bonaparte  came  suddenly  into  the  room,  and  leaning  on  the  back  of 
his  wife's  chair,  addressed  to  one  or  another  of  us  a  few  words,  at  first  insignificant 
enough.  Then  he  began  to  question  us  about  what  we  were  doing,  and  let  us 
know,  but  only  by  hints,  that  some  of  us  were  very  lightly  spoken  of  by  the 
public.  The  Empress,  who  knew  her  husband's  ways,  and  was  aware  that, 
when  talking  in  this  manner,  he  was  apt  to  go  very  far,  tried  to  interrupt  him  ; 
but  the  Emperor,  persisting  in  the  conversation,  presently  gave  it  an  exceedingly 


428        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

embarrassing  turn.     '  Yes,  ladies  .    .    .    they  say  that  you,  Madame  ,  have 

a  liaison  with  M. ;  that  you,  Madame ,'  and  so  he  went  on,  addressing  him- 
self to  three  or  four  ladies  in  succession.  The  effect  upon  us  all  of  such  an  attack 
may  easily  be  imagined.  The  Emperor  was  amused  by  the  confusion  into 
which  he  threw  us.  *  But,'  added  he,  *  you  need  not  suppose  that  I  approve  of 
talk  of  this  kind.  To  attack  my  Court  is  to  attack  myself,  and  I  do  not  choose 
that  a  word  shall  be  said,  either  of  me,  or  of  my  family,  or  of  my  Court.' 
While  thus  speaking,  his  countenance  darkened,  and  his  voice  became  extremely 
harsh.  .  .  .  He  proceeded  to  work  himself  into  a  furious  passion  upon  this  text, 
which  he  had  entirely  to  himself,  for  not  a  single  one  of  us  attempted  to  make 
an  answer.     The  Empress  at  length  rose  from  the  table,  in  order  to  terminate 

this  unpleasant  scene,  and   the  general   movement  put  an  end   to  it 

Bonaparte  was  greatly  surprised  when  the  Empress  represented  to  him  the 
impropriety  of  this  scene  ;  he  always  insisted  that  we  ought  to  have  been 
very  grateful  for  the  readiness  with  which  he  took  offence  when  we  were 
attacked." 

He  could  be  rude  also  to  men.  He  rarely  remembered  a  name,  and  his  first 
question  to  a  lady  or  to  a  gentleman  whom  he  saw  in  his  saloons  was,  "  And 
pray,  what  do  you  call  yourself?"  Gretry,  the  musical  composer,  who 
frequently  attended  the  Sunday  receptions,  was  a  little  tired  of  this  oft- 
repeated  question,  and  he  once  answered,  "  Sire,  I  am  still  Gretry."  Ever 
afterwards  the  Emperor  recognised  him  perfectly. 

His  immoralities  were  repeated,  and  he  was  very  angry  if  his  wife  were 
jealous.  Madame  de  Recamier  says :  "  1  observed  that  from  the  moment  he 
paid  attention  to  another  woman — whether  it  was  that  his  despotic  temper  led 
him  to  expect  that  his  wife  should  approve  this  indication  of  his.  absolute 
independence  in  all  things,  or  whether  Nature  had  bestowed  upon  him  so 
limited  a  faculty  of  loving  that  it  was  all  absorbed  by  the  person  preferred  at 
the  time,  and  that  he  had  not  a  particle  of  feeling  left  to  bestow  upon  another — 
he  became  harsh,  violent,  and  pitiless  to  his  wife.  Whenever  he  had  a  mistress, 
he  let  her  know  it,  and  showed  a  sort  of  savage  ^surprise  that  she  did  not 
approve  of  his  indulging  in  pleasures  which,  as  he  would  demonstrate,  so  to 
speak,  mathematically,  were  both  allowable  and  necessary  for  him.  '  I  am  not 
an  ordinary  man,'  he  would  say,  '  and  the  laws  of  morals  and  of  custom  were 
never  made  for  me.'"*  Of  tenderness  of  feeling  he  had  little  or  none.  He 
was  as  fond  as  he  could  be  of  his  little  nephew,  the  son  of  his  brother  Louis, 
but  only  because  the  child  was  to  reign  in  his  room  and  perpetuate  his  dynasty. 
When  it  died  of  croup,  he  showed  such  obtuseness  of  feeling  that  Talleyrand 
was  constrained  to  reprimand  him.  "  You  forget,  Sire,  that  a  death  has 
occurred  in  your  family,  and  that  you  ought  to  look  serious."  "  I  do  not  amuse 
myself,"  replied  Bonaparte,  "  by  thinking  of  dead  people."  An  instance  of  his 
insensibility  is  mentioned  by  Constant.  Lannes  had  been  killed  at  Aspern. 
As  one  day  Napoleon  was  walking  through  the  manufactory  at  Sevres  with 
Marie  Louise  and  Mme.  Lannes,  he  halted  in  front  of  a  porcelain  bust  of  the 
deceased  Marshal,  and  regardless  of  the  pallor  of  the  widow,  asked  her  whether 
she  thought  it  like  her  husband.     "She  could  not  answer  him,  but  burst  into 

*  Mhnoires^  i.  91. 


GREATNESS    OR    LITTLENESS  429 

tears,  and  it  was  several  days  before  she  reappeared  at  Court,  and,  indeed,  it 
was  only  with  difficulty  that  her  friends  could  persuade  her  to  resume  service 
with  the  Empress."*  . 

An  amusing  story  is  told,  illustrative  of  the  overbearing  conduct  o4 
Napoleon  in  his  own  family.  He  had  been  invited  by  Joseph  to  dine  with  him 
at  his  house  at  Mortefontaine.  It  was  to  be  a  family  gathering.  The  mother 
of  the  Bonapartes  was  there.  This  was  before  Napoleon  became  Emperor, 
when  he  was  First  Consul.  Joseph  told  his  brother  that  he  intended  taking  his 
mother  in  to  dinner,  and  that  Josephine  would  sit  on  his  left.  Napoleon  fired 
up,  was  very  angry,  and  insisted  that  Josephine  should  be  given  precedence 
over  his  mother.  Joseph,  with  quiet  dignity,  remarked  that  in  his  own  house 
he  chose  to  show  highest  respect  to  his  mother,  and  gave  his  arm  to  the  old 
lady.  Lucien  escorted  Josephine,  The  First  Consul  in  a  towering  rage  rushed 
across  the  room,  snatched  his  wife  away  from  Lucien,  pushed  out  of  the 
room  before  Joseph  and  his  mother,  seated  himself  at  the  table  and  Josephine 
beside  him,  and  signed  to  Madame  de  Recamier  to  take  the  place  on  his  left. 
The  company  was  greatly  embarrassed,  and  Madame  Joseph,  the  lady  of  the 
house,  who  was  to  have  been  on  Napoleon's  arm,  came  straggling  in  without  a 
partner.  The  whole  dinner  party  was  spoiled  by  the  conduct  of  Napoleon. 
The  brothers  were  angry,  the  old  lady  was  wretched. 

The  First  Consul  would  not  address  a  single  member  of  his  family  during 
the  meal,  but  talked  only  to  his  wife  and  Madame  de  Recamier. 

As  may  well  be  imagined,  with  such  scenes  enacted  when  he  was  only  on 
the  step  to  the  throne,  he  became  afterwards  far  more  exacting.  Of  the 
duplicity  with  which  Napoleon  acted,  many  instances  have  been  given.  His 
assurances,  his  engagements,  could  not  be  trusted.  He  broke  his  promises  as 
fast  as  he  made  them.  He  was  a  master  of  dissimulation.  Knowing  how  he 
frightened  and  imposed  by  an  outburst  of  anger,  he  was  able  to  simulate  one, 
and  after  a  terrific  explosion,  would  bid  his  intimates  feel  his  pulse,  to  see  how 
little  agitated  he  really  was.  A  letter  to  Eugene  Beauharnais,  on  his  appoint- 
ment as  Viceroy  of  Italy,  reveals  some  of  the  cynicism  of  his  views,  and  liking 
for  dissimulation : — 

"  As  you  are  not  of  an  age  to  be  acquainted  with  the  perversity  of  the 
human  heart,  we  cannot  recommend  too  much  prudence  and  circumspection. 
Our  subjects  in  Italy  are  naturally  more  false  than  the  citizens  of  France. 
The  only  means  you  have  of  preserving  their  esteem,  and  of  being  useful  to 
their  happiness,  will  be  by  not  according  your  entire  confidence  to  anyone.  .  .  . 
Dissimulation,  natural  at  a  certain  age,  should  be  to  you  a  matter  of  principle. 
When  you  have  spoken  according  to  your  heart,  and  without  necessity,  consider 
that  you  have  committed  a  fault,  and  do  not  be  guilty  of  the  same  error  again. 
Show  the  nation  over  which  you  rule  the  more  esteem,  the  less  reason  you  find 
for  esteeming  it." 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  said  :  "  Bonaparte's  mind  was,  in  its  details,  low 
and  ungentlemanlike.  I  suppose  the  narrowness  of  his  early  prospects  and 
habits  stuck  to  him.     What  we  understand  hy  gentlemanlike  feelings  he  knew 

*  Constant,  Memoirs,  iv.  154. 


430        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

i 
nothing  at  all  about.  I'll  give  you  a  curious  instance.  I  have  a  beautiful  little 
watch,  made  by  Bregnet  at  Paris,  with  a  map  of  Spain  enamelled  on  the  case. 
.  .  .  Bonaparte  had  ordered  it  as  a  present  to  his  brother,  the  King  of  Spain  ; 
but  when  he  heard  of  the  battle  of  Vittoria,  he  remembered  the  watch  he  had 
ordered  for  one  whom  he  saw  would  never  be  King  of  Spain,  and  with  whom  he 
was  angry  for  the  loss  of  the  battle,  and  he  wrote  to  countermand  the  watch ; 
and  if  it  should  be  ready,  to  forbid  its  being  sent.  A  gentleman  would  not  have 
taken  the  moment  when  the  poor  devil  had  lost  his  chateaux  en  Espagne  to  take 
away  his  watch  also."  * 


(^. 


A  noticeable  feature  of  Napoleon's  character  was  his  determination  to  be 
first,  and  to  imitate  what  former  sovereigns  had  done,  as  part  of  his  assumed 
position.  When  negotiating  with  M.  de  Cobentzel  the  Treaty  of  Campo- 
Formio,  he  observed  a  dais  with  a  chair  on  it,  and  he  asked  the  meaning.  He 
was  informed  by  the  plenipotentiary  that  it  was  customary  so  to  set  a  seat  as 
symbol  of  the  presence  of  his  Imperial  master.  Napoleon  at  once  ordered  the 
removal  of  the  chair,  *' For,"  said  he,  "I  cannot  endure  to  see  any  seat  higher 
than  mine.     At  once  I  want  to  occupy  it." 

When  he  entered  Brussels,  the  clergy  proceeded  to  the  great  gates  to  receive 
him,  and  waited  long,  but  he  did  not  arrive.  Presently  they  learned  that  he  had 
entered  by  a  side  door,  because  Charles  V.,  on  a  visit  to  S.  Gudule,  had  gone 
through  that  entrance. 

"  The  same  pride  made  him  depreciate  his  generals,  and  arrogate  to  himself 
all  the  merits  of  a  victory.  This  was  notoriously  the  case  at  Marengo  and  at 
Auerstadt.  Moreover,  if  he  made  a  blunder,  and  disaster  followed,  he  at  once 
cast  the  blame  on  his  instrument,  and  distorted  facts,  or  suppressed  information 
which  would  show  that  the  fault  was  due  to  himself.  Monsieur  de  Remusat 
gives  so  interesting  an  account  of  Napoleon's  treatment  of  his  generals  and 
manipulation  of  bulletins,  that  it  deserves  reproduction  : — 

"  The  Emperor  took  the  utmost  licence  in  composing  his  bulletins,  seeking 
especially  to  eclipse  all  the  others  {i.e.,  his  generals),  and  to  establish  his  own 
infallibility.  .  .  .  Truth  lagged  a  long  way  behind  all  these  statements.  Nothing 
could  equal  the  surprise  of  the  officers  on  reading  the  bulletins  which  came  back 
to  them  from  Paris  ;  but  they  made  few  complaints. 

"  The  Emperor  gave  but  little  praise  to  the  great  generals  of  his  time. 
Military  men  are  more  jealous  of  each  other  than  those  of  any  other  profession  ; 
they  are  the  least  to  be  relied  on  in  their  estimation  of  each  other.  To  this 
natural  jealousy  the  Emperor  added  the  calculations  of  a  despot,  who  will  allow 
no  one  to  be  of  importance  except  himself.  .  .  .  He  was  always  resolute  in  deny- 
ing, or  in  preserving  silence  concerning,  anything  which  might  injure  himself. 
This  rendered  the  service  unbearable  to  those  generals  who  were  at  a  distance 
from  himself.  They  accused  him  of  selfishness,  of  injustice,  of  perfidy,  and  even 
of  malice  towards  them,  or  of  envy.  Barante  has  told  me  that,  when  attached 
to  the  staff  of  Lannes,  during  the  campaign  of  Poland,  I  believe,  he  heard  the 
Marshal  frequently  say  at  his  own  table  that  the  Emperor,  being  jealous  of  him, 
and  eager  to  ruin  him,  gave  him  orders  with  this  end  in  view ;  and  once,  when 
suffering  from  internal  pain,  he  went  so  far  as  to  assert  that  the  Emperor  had 
tried  to  have  him  poisoned." 

*  The  Croker  Papers^  1884,  vol.  i.  p.  339. 


GREATNESS   OR    LITTLENESS  43i\ 

Belief  in  himself  as  destined  to  a  great  work,  an  absolute  conviction  in  his 
"  calling  and  election,"  seem  to  have  been  in  him  from  an  early  age.  Madame 
de  Rdmusat  very  truly  observes  of  him  :^ 

"  He  never  took  anything  into  account  but  success,  in  the  calculations  on 
which  he  acted.  Perhaps  he  was  more  excusable  than  another  would  have  been, 
in  doubting  whether  any  reverse  could  come  to  him.  His  natural  pride  shrank 
from  the  idea  of  defeat  of  any  kind.  '/  shall  win,'  was  the  basis  of  all  his 
calculations,  and  his  obstinate  repetition  of  the  phrase  helped  him  to  realise  the 
prediction.  At  length  his  own  good  fortune  grew  into  a  superstition  with  him, 
and  his  worship  of  it  made  every  sacrifice  which  was  to  be  imposed  appear  fair 
and  lawful  in  his  eyes.  And  we  ourselves — let  us  admit  it — did  not  we  also,  at 
first,  share  this  baleful  superstition  ?  "  • 

The  confidence  in  Napoleon's  good  fortune  was  indeed  general  throughout 
France,  and  he  was  credited  with  a  sort  of  infallibility,  not  only  in  war,  but  in 
politics. 

At  the  outset  of  his  career,  he  was  filled  with  fancies  of  founding  a  mighty 
Oriental  Empire. 

With  the  death  of  this  dream  rose  that  of  a  mighty  Western  Empire.  His 
first  ideal  had  been  to  walk  in  the  steps  of  Alexander ;  his  second,  to  be  a  new 
Charlemagne.  From  thenceforth  France  became  to  him  but  one  province  in 
the  empire,  and  the  foreign  sovereignties  he  created  or  subjugated  were  to  be  to 
him  feudatories.  He  believed  that  he  could  attain  his  object  by  placing  members 
•of  his  own  family  on  the  various  thrones  of  the  countries  he  conquered,  and 
he  imposed  on  them  oaths  of  allegiance  to  himself     He  said  : — 

"  It  is  my  intention  to  attain  to  this,  that  all  the  kings  of  Europe  will  be 
forced  each  to  have  a  palace  in  Paris  ;  and  that,  on  the  occasion  of  a  coronation 
of  an  Emperor  of  the  French,  all  will  be  summoned  to  reside  there,  so  as  to 
attend  at  the  ceremony,  and  pay  their  homage." 

It  must  be  recalled  that  he  had  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  before  him,  broken 
up  by  his  power,  but  never  other  than  a  phantom  empire.  What  was  a  phantom 
of  the  Middle  Ages  he  desired  to  revive  as  a  reality,  with  Paris  as  its  centre. 
His  creation  of  great  feudatory  nobles  was  a  step  in  that  direction.  In  the 
Middle  Ages  the  nobles  had  been  checks  on  the  crown ;  but  what  he  designed 
with  his  new  nobility  was  to  make  them  buttresses  of  the  throne.  For  this 
reason,  he  gave  to  them  the  so-called  Majorats,  or  power  of  leaving  large 
hereditary  estates,  their  ducal  properties,  unparcelled  up,  to  their  successors  in 
the  title.  The  idea  was  a  very  great  one,  and,  perhaps,  would  not  have  been 
impossible  of  execution,  had  it  not  been  advanced  with  such  violence.  More- 
over, just  as  England  stood  in  the  way  of  his  realising  this  Oriental  scheme 
of  empire,  so  did  she  frustrate,  at  every  point,  the  consolidation  of  his  Occidental 
Empire. 

It  seems  to  me  that  Madame  de  Remusat  has  hit,  with  real  genius,  on 
what  is  at  once  the  greatness  and  the  weakness  of  Napoleon,  when  she  says 
that  in  him  were  two  individuals,   the  one  gigantic  rather  than   great,   and 


432        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

the  other  petty  and  base.     Her  appreciation  is  as  acute  as  any  by  Tacitus. 

She  says : — 

"  There  would  seem  to  have  been  in  him  two  different  men,  the  one  gigantic 
rather  than  great,  but,  nevertheless,  prompt  to  conceive,  also  prompt  to  execute, 
who  laid,  from  time  to  time,  some  of  the  foundations  of  the  plan  he  had  formed. 
This  man,  actuated  by  one  single  idea,  untouched  by  any  secondary  considera- 
tion likely  to  interfere  with  his  projects,  had  he  but  taken  for  his  aim  the  good 
of  mankind,  would,  with  such  abilities,  have  become  the  one  greatest  man  of  the 
earth.  Even  now  he  remains,  through  his  perspicacity  and  strength  of  will,  the 
most  extraordinary. 

"  The  other  Bonaparte,  forming  a  kind  of  uneasy  conscience  to  the  first,  was 
devoured  by  anxiety,  agitated  by  continual  suspicion,  a  slave  to  passions  which 
gave  him  no  rest,  distrustful,  fearing  every  rival  greatness,  even  that  which  he 
had  himself  created.  .  .  .  When  seized  upon  by  this  spirit  of  mistrust,  he  gave 
himself  up  to  it  entirely,  and  thought  only  of  how  to  create  division.  He  loosed 
the  ties  of  blood,  and  endeavoured  to  promote  individual  rather  than  general 
interests.  Sole  centre  of  an  immense  circle,  he  would  have  liked  it  to  contain 
as  many  spokes  as  he  had  subjects,  that  they  might  meet  nowhere  save  in 
himself  This  suspicious  jealousy,  which  incessantly  pursued  him,  fastened 
like  a  canker  on  all  his  undertakings,  and  prevented  him  from  establishing,  on 
a  solid  foundation,  any  of  those  schemes  which  his  prolific  imagination  was 
continually  inventing." 


THEY    GRUMBLED,    BUT    FOLLOWED. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


XLVII 
MOSCOW 


(1812) 


''  I  ''HE  effusion  wherewith  Alexander  had  embraced  Napoleon  at  Erfurt,  before 
-^      an  audience  in  the  theatre,  had  been  suitable  to  the  place  where  the  de- 
monstration was  made.     It  disguised  mistrust,  and  an  inclination  to  dissolve 
partnership. 

This  mistrust  had  gathered  strength  since  the  meeting.  The  addition  of 
territory  accorded  to  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw  not  only  annoyed  Alexander, 
but  exasperated  the  susceptibilities  of  the  Russians.  The  Autocrat  of  the 
North  could  not  afford  to  disregard  the  will  of  his  people.  His  father  and  his 
grandfather  had  been  assassinated,  and  there  were  mutterings  about  his  throne 
that  a  similar  fate  would  befall  him  if  he  continued  the  intimacy.  The  compact 
forced  on  him,  of  entering  into  the  continental  blockade,  had  provoked  general 
irritation.  The  produce  of  the  Empire  remained  on  hand,  as  the  English,  in 
retaliation,  refused  to  receive  it.  The  great  landowners  complained.  Tea  could 
be  imported  from  China  by  land,  but  not  coffee,  sugar,  and  logwood. 

Moreover,  he  was  personally  offended  by  the  demand  for  his  sister,  couched 
as  it  was,  and  he  was  incensed  with  Napoleon  for  making  his  arrangements  to 
take  an  Austrian  Archduchess,  without  awaiting  the  expiration  of  the  term  he 
had  himself  named.  The  retention  by  France  of  the  seven  Venetian  Islands, 
situated  so  near  Greece,  made  him  fear  a  watchful  and  redoubtable  enemy, 
should  he  resume  Catherine's  old  plans  with  regard  to  the  Ottoman  Empire. 
2  F  433 


434        THE    LIFE   OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  rigour  with  which  Prussia  had  been  used  displeased  him,  as  well  as  the 
continued  occupation  of  Danzig  and  the  Hanse  Towns.  The  Czar  began  by 
degrees  to  seek  reconciliation  with  England.  All  the  Powers  of  the  Continent 
had  suffered  severely ;  Russia  alone  still  preserved  her  energy,  and  her  strength 
was  unimpaired. 

Then,  with  singular  lack  of  discretion.  Napoleon  laid  his  hand  on  Olden- 
burg, with  the  Ducal  House  of  which  the  Czar  was  closely  related.  Alexander's 
reply  to  the  taking  of  the  Duchy  of  Oldenburg  was  a  ukase,  dated  the 
31st  December,  18 10,  by  which  he  detached  Russia  from  the  commercial 
system  of  Napoleon,  and  without  as  yet  opening  his  ports  to  English  manu- 
factures, he  admitted  colonial  merchandise,  resumed  the  liberty  of  tariffs,  and 
imposed  duties  on  certain  French  manufactures. 

Before  a  final  rupture  with  France,  Alexander  proceeded  to  raise  levies,  to 
make  peace  with  Turkey,  to  collect  his  forces  on  the  Polish  frontier,  and 
to  execute  defensive  works  on  the  Dnieper  and  Dwina.  The  infatuation  of 
Napoleon  in  his  Continental  System  continued.  It  was  now,  he  believed,  but  a 
matter  of  holding  out  for  two  or  three  years,  and  England  would  become  bank- 
rupt. She  was,  he  said,  a  deux  doigts  de  sa  perte.  Only  continue  the  blockade 
till  she  collapsed  financially,  and  then  he  would  be  able  to  march  an  invincible 
French  army  into  London,  change  the  selfish  and  anti-social  Constitution  of  the 
country,  and  declare  that  the  dynasty  of  Brunswick  had  ceased  to  reign.  Allans^ 
then !  let  us  persevere  a  little  longer ;  let  us  burn  all  British  merchandise, 
wherever  found  ;  let  us  punish  as  traitors  all  those  who  attempt  to  introduce 
British  goods  into  any  part  of  the  Continent ;  and,  for  the  triumph  of  this  great 
system,  let  us  brave,  if  needs  be,  the  remonstrances  and  the  enmity  of  even  the 
Czar  Alexander !  The  resentment  of  Napoleon  against  Russia,  for  receding 
from  the  Continental  System,  may  be  conceived. 

Some  of  the  French  writers  in  the  pay  of  the  Emperor,  who  had  formerly 
been  employed  in  writing  eulogiums  of  Alexander,  were  now  set  to  work  to 
traduce  him,  his  whole  family,  his  Court,  his  country,  and  his  people ;  and 
between  the  autumn  and  the  winter  of  181 1,  and  the  spring  of  1812,  as  many 
calumnies  were  produced  against  Alexander,  as  had  been  issued  against  the 
unfortunate  Queen  Louise,  preceding  the  opening  of  the  Prussian  war  of  1806. 
A  pretended  history  of  the  Russian  Empire — a  libel  from  the  first  page  to  the 
last — was  published  in  Paris,  and  widely  circulated,  under  the  auspices  of 
the  police.  In  this  book  every  vice  and  crime  which  Suetonius  attributes  to 
the  Roman  Emperors  was  saddled  on  the  Russian  Czars ;  and  Alexander  himself 
was  charged,  not  merely  with  being  privy  and  consentient  to,  but  an  actor  in, 
the  murder  of  his  own  father.  The  French  press  was  entirely  under  the  control 
of  the  police.  This  was  one  of  Bonaparte's  methods  of  preparing  the  public 
mind  for  the  outbreak  of  hostilities. 

After  the  deposition  of  the  King  of  Sweden,  and  the  death  of  the  Crown 
Prince,  Marshal  Bernadotte  had  been  elected  to  be  Prince,  with  expectation  of 
the  crown,  not  to  the  satisfaction  of  Napoleon,  who  hated  him  ;  but  he  did  not 
actively  oppose  the  election,  because  Bernadotte  was  married  to  the  sister  of  his 


MOSCOW  435 

own  brother  Joseph's  wife,  and  he  thought  it  gave  an  air  of  dignity  to  the  soap- 
boiler's daughters,  to  be  both  of  them  queens.  Bernadotte  was  by  no  means 
disposed  to  be  dictated  to  by  Napoleon,  and  he  refused  to  join  the  continental 
blockade,  which  would  ruin  his  adopted  country.  Thereupon  the  Emperor 
seized  and  confiscated  fifty  Swedish  merchantmen ;  and,  lastly,  in  January, 
1 8 12,  he  sent  Davoust,  one  of  the  roughest  of  his  generals,  who  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  army  of  occupation  on  the  Baltic,  to  take  possession  of  Swedish 
Pomerania  and  the  Isle  of  Riigen.  This  aggression  induced  Bernadotte,  who 
had  been  corresponding  with  Russia  before,  to  sign  a  treaty  of  alliance  with 
Alexander  (March,  1812);  and  in  an  interview  between  the  Gascon  saddler's 
son  and  the  Czar  their  plan  of  resistance,  inspired  by  the  success  of  Wellington 
in  Portugal,  was  settled.  This  was,  in  the  event  of  invasion,  to  retreat  before 
the  invading  army,  and  avoid  pitched  battles,  but  to  strongly  fortify  and  hold 
fortresses  in  the  interior.  The  French  agent  at  Stockholm,  by  means  of 
bribery,  got  hold  of  these  plans,  and  communicated  them  to  Napoleon,  but  the 
infatuated  Emperor  disregarded  the  important  information  sent  him. 

Although  war  was  not  declared,  Bonaparte  poured  troops  into  Prussia, 
Pomerania,  and  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw.  The  frontiers  of  the  Polish  Duchy 
touched  the  limits  of  Alexander's  domains,  and  the  Poles,  inflamed  by  their  old 
animosities,  and  animated  by  their  hopes  for  the  re-establishment  of  their  king- 
dom, flocked  to  the  French  eagles. 

Talleyrand  had  been  in  disgrace  ever  since  he  had  cautioned  Napoleon 
against  his  attempt  upon  Spain.  Others  beside  saw  that  the  Emperor,  in  the 
madness  of  pride,  was  rushing  on  his  ruin.  Fouche  ventured  to  interpose.  He 
presented  the  Emperor  with  a  memorial  full  of  statistics,  and  employed  argu- 
ments and  entreaties  ;  but  this  interference,  together  with  advice  from  other 
quarters,  was  thrown  away. 

Napoleon's  old  marshals  and  generals  shook  their  heads  at  the  suggestion 
of  war  with  Russia.  They  recalled  the  difficulties  and  disasters  of  the  cam- 
paign in  Poland.  In  his  intoxication  of  success.  Napoleon  had  forgotten  his 
defeat  at  Eylau,  and  the  tenacity  with  which  the  Russian  soldiers  contested 
every  foot  of  ground,  as  well  as  the  assistance  lent  to  the  enemy  by  the  climate 
of  the  North. 

His  marshals  were  glutted  with  spoil,  they  were  weary  of  war.  All  they 
desired  was  peace,  that  they  might  enjoy  the  fruits  of  the  plunder  of  the  lands 
they  had  conquered.  Napoleon  was  incensed  at  their  reluctance ;  he  would 
not  listen  to  their  objections.  Unable  to  inspire  them  with  enthusiasm  and 
confidence,  he  estranged  himself  from  their  society ;  and  when  his  views  met 
with  opposition  in  a  council,  would  start  up,  retire  to  an  embrasure  of  a  window, 
and  there  pour  forth  his  assurances  of  conquest  and  spoil  into  the  ears  of  some 
young  general  who  had  his  fortune  to  make,  and  who  was  therefore  on  fire  to 
undertake  any  daring  expedition.* 

"  I  regulate  my  conduct  by  the  opinion  of  my  army,"  exclaimed  the 
Emperor.     "  With  800,000  men  I  can  oblige  all  Europe  to  do  my  bidding.     I 

*  Fain,  Qampagne  de  1812  en  Riissie^  1827,  i.  46,  47. 


436        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

will  destroy  English  influence  in  Russia,  and  then  Spain  must  fall.  My  destiny 
is  not  yet  accomplished  ;  my  present  situation  is  but  the  outline  of  a  picture 
which  I  must  fill  up.  I  must  make  one  nation  out  of  all  the  European  States, 
and  Paris  must  be  the  capital  of  the  world.  There  must  be  all  over  Europe 
but  one  code,  one  court  of  appeal,  one  currency,  one  system  of  weights  and 
measures.  I  will  destroy  all  Russian  influence,  as  well  as  all  English  influence 
in  Europe.  Two  battles  will  do  the  business  ;  the  Ernperor  Alexander  will 
come  to  me  on  his  knees,  and  Russia  shall  be  disarmed.  Spain  costs  me  dear ; 
without  that  I  should  have  been  master  of  the  world  by  this  time ;  but  when  I 
shall  become  such  by  finishing  with  Russia,  my  son  will  have  nothing  to  do  but 
quietly  retain  my  place." 

The  purposes  of  Napoleon  in  undertaking  the  campaign  against  Russia 
were  not,  perhaps,  as  clearly  defined  as  they  seem  to  us,  and  as  they  have  been 
stated  by  his  panegyrists.  He  poured  forth  his  ideas  into  the  ear  of  his  aide- 
de-camp,  M.  de  Narbonne,  in  incoherent  language,  in  which  they  clashed  with- 
out order  and  connection. 

De  Narbonne,  who  had  a  cool  and  clear  head,  was  struck  with  the  confusion 
in  the  ideas  of  the  Emperor.  On  leaving  one  of  these  interviews,  he  exclaimed, 
"  What  *a  man  !  What  dreams  !  Where  is  the  keeper  of  such  a  disordered 
genius?     It  oscillates  between  the  Pantheon  and  Bicetre  (a  lunatic  asylum)." 

Napoleon  showed  the  same  confusion  and  indecision  of  thought  in  his  con- 
versations with  his  intimates.  The  members  of  his  family  w^ere  seriously  un- 
easy at  seeing  him  risk  his  fortunes  in  the  Russian  plains.  "  Do  you  not  see," 
said  he  impatiently,  "  that  I  was  not  born  to  the  purple,  and  that  I  must  main- 
tain myself  on  the  throne  by  that  same  military  glory  which  lifted  me  into  it? 
Do  you  not  perceive  that  I  must  go  forward  ?  If  1  halt,  I  am  lost."  To  the 
remonstrances  of  Cardinal  Fesch,  he  contented  himself  with  opening  the  window 
and  saying,  "Do  you  see  that  star?"  "No,  Sire,  I  do  not."  "Look  again." 
"  Sire,  I  see  nothing."     "  That  matters  not.     I  see  it." 

All  those  engaged  in  the  expedition  entered  on  their  duties  with  reluctance. 
Cambaceres  entreated  him  to  finish  with  Spain  before  embarking  in  a  war  with 
Russia.  Gaudin  and  Mollien  warned  him  that  the  French  finances  were  on  the 
eve  of  bankruptcy.  Duroc  and  Caulaincourt  told  him  plainly  their  minds,  with 
the  daring  of  desperation.  Berthier  implored  him  to  desist,  with  tears  in  his 
eyes.  And  Napoleon  did  pass  the  end  of  his  stay  in  Paris  in  a  condition  of 
cruel  indecision,  combating  the  dangers  he  foresaw  as  well  as  did  his  generals 
and  ministers,  yet  carried  away  by  his  fatalism.  His  health,  moreover,  was  not 
what  it  once  had  been.  He  had  become  stout;  after  a  meal  he  was  drowsy. 
Occasionally  he  fainted  ;  and  his  readiness  to  eat  any  food,  and  content  himself 
with  little,  had  given  way  to  daintiness  and  a  love  of  luxury. 

His  nervous  excitement  had  become  normal,  at  the  same  time  that  his 
physical  powers  declined.  Lying  on  a  sofa,  he  read  all  that  was  brought  him 
about  the  condition  of  Russia.  He  often  repeated  the  name  of  Charles  XII. 
The  state  of  his  mind  was  such  that  he  was  subject  to  hallucinations.  He 
would  start  up  suddenly,  shouting,  "  Who  calls  me  ?  Who  calls  me  ?  "  then  drop 
off  to  sleep  again. 


MOSCOW  437 

Preparations  went  on  slowly,  and  it  was  not  possible  to  begin  the  campaign 
in  the  spring.  When  the  mistake  of  delaying  the  opening  was  pointed  out  to 
him,  Bonaparte  put  away  the  warnings  of  evil  with  a  gesture  of  impatience. 
He  needed,  said  he,  only  a  campaign  of  two  months.  He  reckoned  on  the  help 
of  Sweden.  He  summoned  Bernadotte  to  conclude  an  offensive  alliance  with 
him.  The  Prince  of  Sweden  imposed  conditions,  and  recommended  peace. 
Napoleon  flared  up  in  anger.  "  The  wretch  !  He  advise  me  !  Bernadotte  im- 
pose conditions  on  me !  Does  he  suppose  I  want  him  ? "  The  negotiations 
were  interrupted,  and  Sweden  signed  a  treaty  of  neutrality  with  Russia. 

The  Emperor  exhibited  the  same  irritation  when  his  ministers  offered 
advice.  He  thought  of  using  Talleyrand  to  organise  Poland,  and  prepare  there 
a  base  of  operations  ;  but  this  skilful  diplomatist  would  not  undertake  the 
task  without  assurances  given  that  he  would  re-establish  the  kingdom  of 
the  Jagellons.  Napoleon  rejected  his  counsels,  and  exclaimed  disdainfully, 
"  This  fellow !  does  he  think  himself  necessary  ?  Does  he  think  to  teach 
me?" 

Early  in  May,  Bonaparte  departed  for  Dresden,  taking  his  young  Empress 
with  him.  Obedient  to  his  summons,  the  kings  of  his  manufacture,  also  the 
Emperor  of  Austria  and  the  King  of  Prussia,  together  with  the  tributary 
princes,  met  him  at  the  Saxon  capital,  where  he  treated  them  with  rudeness. 
The  representatives  of  the  old  royal  families  of  Europe  were  shouldered  at 
the  door  of  his  audience-chamber  by  marshals  and  generals,  who  the  other 
day  were  coopers  and  blacksmiths — a  strange  democratic  jumble,  gratifying 
enough  to  men  such  as  Junot  and  Ney,  but  which  bred  resentment  in  the 
hearts  of  the  princes,  keener  even  than  that  caused  by  their  defeats  and 
disasters. 

Napoleon  remained  at  Dresden  till  the  29th  May.  The  discouragement  and 
hesitation  which  had  for  a  moment  overshadowed  his  mind,  passed,  and  he 
became  elated  with  confidence.  The  King  of  Prussia  had  been  forced  to  place 
20,000  men  at  the  disposal  of  Bonaparte. 

The  Emperor  of  Austria  engaged  to  furnish  30,000  men  to  act  against 
Russian  Poland.  The  Kings  of  Bavaria,  Wiirtemberg,  Westphalia,  and  Naples, 
the  Viceroy  of  Italy,  gave  their  contingents.  The  confidence  of  Napoleon  was 
at  its  height. 

"  Never,"  said  he,  *'  was  the  success  of  an  expedition  more  certain  ;  I  see  on 
all  sides  nothing  but  probabilities  in  my  favour.  Not  only  do  I  advance  at  the 
head  of  the  immense  forces  of  France,  Italy,  Germany,  the  Confederation  of 
the  Rhine,  and  Poland  ;  but  the  two  Monarchies  which  have  hitherto  been  the 
most  powerful  auxiliaries  of  Russia  against  me,  have  now  ranged  themselves 
on  my  side  ;  they  espouse  my  quarrel  with  the  zeal  of  my  oldest  friends.  Why 
should  I  not  reckon  also  on  Turkey  and  Sweden  ?  The  former  at  this  moment 
is  "probably  arming  against  the  Russians.  Bernadotte  hesitates,  but  he  is  a 
Frenchman ;  he  will  rejoin  his  old  associates  at  the  first  cannon-shot.  Never 
again  can  such  a  favourable  combination  of  circumstances  be  anticipated.  I 
feel  that  it  draws  me  on ;  and  if  Alexander  persists  in  refusing  my  proposals, 
I  will  cross  the  Niemen." 


438        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

And  France  was  carried  away  by  the  same  blind  infatuation.  Believing  as 
it  did  in  Napoleon,  dazzled  by  the  vastness  of  his  preparations,  and  seeing  him 
at  Dresden  in  the  midst  of  an  assembly  of  monarchs,  all  his  humble  servants,  at 
the  head  of  five  hundred  thousand  men,  "  it  appeared  impossible,"  as  Madame 
de  Stael  admits,  "  according  to  all  human  calculation,  but  that  this  expedition 
must  succeed." 

Elated,  certain  of  success,  Napoleon  allowed  himself  to  treat  the  sovereigns 
who  had  assembled  about  him  with  galling  disregard,  and  the  smaller  princes 
with  insult.     But  this  was  the  last  time  they  were  to  endure  such  humiliation. 


NAPOLEON   ADOPTING   THE    CHILD   OF   A    SOLDIER   WPO    FELL    IN    THE   CAMPAIGN. 
From  a  picture  by  Chasselat. 

None  of  them,  nor  the  generals,  nor  the  diplomatists,  had  any  expectation  of 
Alexander's  success.  Unless  a  miracle  were  to  occur,  with '  his  incapable 
generals,  his  feeble  army,  and  the  distraction  caused  by  the  probability  of  the 
Turkish  war  breaking  out  again,  he  must  be  broken  in  pieces  by  the  Emperor, 
as  so  many  had .  been  before.  But  the  common  people  had  an  indistinct, 
inarticulate  presentiment  that  such  a  miracle  would  occur. 

This  time  the  popular  anticipation  was  realised.  The  Russians,  whether 
purposely  or  not,  were  driven  to  follow  the  line  of  conduct  recommended  by 
Scharnhorst — to  fall  back  before  the  invader,  to  lure  him  on  into  the  interior  of 
the  empire,  to  create  a  waste  before  him,  and  to  cut  off  his  communications 
behind  him. 


MOSCOW  .    439 

It  is  not  the  object  of  this  book  to  detail  the  events  of  this  or  of  any  other 
campaign  of  Napoleon.     It  will  suffice  to  summarise  them. 

All  could  see  that  there  was  a  great  decline  in  the  powers  of  the  Emperor. 
He  was  more  irritable,  less  active,  and  more  callous  than  of  old.  At  the 
moment  that  the  Niemen  was  passed,  his  horse  fell.  "  This  is  a  bad  omen,"  said 
he,  "and  a  Roman  would  withdraw  from  the  expedition."  He  was  disappointed 
that  the  Russians  would  not  meet  him  in  pitched  battle,  but  incessantly  retired 
before  him.  He  halted  twenty  days  at  Wilna,  and  sent  forward  Davoust  and 
Murat  to  endeavour  to  force  an  engagement.  This  strange  delay  was  due  partly 
to  his  weariness,  but  mainly  to  his  desire  to  receive  the  vast  amount  of  corre- 
spondence, relative  to  the  affairs  of  France,  which  followed  him,  and  which  he 
was  determined  to  settle  himself.  In  the  meantime  his  Grand  Army  was 
becoming  disorganised.  It  had  already  lost  50,000  men  through  desertion  and 
dysentery.  At  length  he  gave  orders  for  advance.  Still  the  Russians  retreated, 
to  his  great  exasperation,  for  their  tactics  completely  upset  his  calculations.  He 
scolded  and  stormed,  and  called  the  Russian  general  a  coward ;  but,  as  Duroc 
said  to  his  fellows  after  one  of  these  explosions,  "If  Barclay  had  been  wrong 
in  refusing  battle,  the  Emperor  would  not  take  so  much  pains  to  make  us 
believe  it." 

In  order  to  save  holy  Smolensk,  the  Russians  did,  however,  make  a  stand. 

After  bloody  battles  lasting  three  days,  the  17th  to  the  19th  August,  they 
were  forced  to  abandon  the  field.  Once  again,  to  attempt  the  salvation  of 
Moscow,  the  city  of  the  Czars,  the  battle  of  Borodino  was  fought,  and  then 
Napoleon  won  the  battle.  This  cost  him  more  blood  than  any  he  had  hitherto 
fought  (/th  Sept.).  By  this  victory  his  way  into  the  empty  city  was  gained  ; 
but  his  anticipation  of  resting  there,  and  recruiting  his  exhausted  host,  was 
frustrated.  The  fanaticism  of  patriotism  inspired  the  Governor  with  the  thought 
of  firing  the  city  ;  and,  after  the  flames  had  raged  for  five  days,  the  place  was 
reduced  to  a  heap  of  ashes,  and  the  army  of  Napoleon  was  left  without  shelter 
at  the  approach  of  winter. 

Still  the  Emperor  was  unable  to  believe  in  his  misfortune,  and  he  wasted  five 
precious  weeks  in  useless  negotiations,  purposely  protracted  by  Alexander,  in 
whom  Napoleon  found  his  match  in  cunning. 

When,  finally,  he  resolved  on  retreat,  the  first  snows  of  winter  had  begun  to 
fall.  The  weather  had  been  unusually  bright  and  warm,  and  Napoleon,  in  his 
bulletins,  had  declared  that  it  was  like  that  of  Fontainebleau  in  summer.  The 
Russians  wondered,  and  feared  that  Heaven  was  on  the  side  of  the  invader- 
But  he  was  actually  being  lured  to  his  destruction. 

There  were  two  roads  by  which  he  might  retreat.  The  northern  road  was 
by  Smolensk ;  but  this  had  not  only  been  devastated  by  the  Russians  as  he 
advanced,  but  what  little  had  been  left  had  been  swept  up,  and  what  little  shelter 
remained  had  been  burnt,  on  the  advance  of  the  invading  army.  The  other 
road,  to  the  south,  was  through  Kaluga,  and  this  he  resolved  to  take.  Murat  was 
sent  forward  with  the  advanced  guard,  but  was  attacked  and  badly  beaten,  at 
Winkovo,  on  October  i8th.     On  the  following  day  Napoleon  hastily  marched 


440 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


out  of  Moscow,  along  the  same  road,  at  the  head  of  105,000  combatants,  and 
was  at  once  met  by  the  Russians  at  Jaroslawitz.  A  battle  was  fought,  without 
dislodging  the  Russians,  who  remained  astride  the  road,  blocking  his  advance. 
Napoleon  was  constrained  either  to  fight  them  again,  or  withdraw  and  retreat  by 
the  northern  road.  The  former  alternative  was  fraught  with  peril,  the  latter 
was  a  confession  of  defeat. 

The  agitation  of  the  mind  of  the  Emperor  became  so  excessive  that  his 
attendants  dared  not  approach  him.  Upon  returning  to  the  squalid  cottage  he 
occupied,  he  sent  for  his  generals — Berthier,  Murat,  and  Bessieres.  They  sat 
round  a  table,  on  which  was  spread  a  map  of  the  country,  and  discussed  the 


THE    RETREAT    FROM    MOSCOW. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Fabre  du   Paure. 

situation.  The  enemy  occupied  high  ground,  and  so  strong  a  position,  that  to 
dislodge  them  seemed  a  desperate  venture.  After  some  discussion.  Napoleon 
became  meditative,  and,  resting  his  face  in  his  hands,  with  his  elbows  on  the 
board,  he  remained  for  over  an  hour  mute  and  motionless.  The  three  generals, 
respecting  his  mental  agony,  preserved  silence.  Then,  and  then  for  the  first 
time,  did  it  seem  that  the  idea  had  dawned  on  Napoleon's  mind  that  Fortune 
was  turning  her  back,  that  his  star  was  in  decline.  Suddenly  springing  to 
his  feet,  Napoleon  dismissed  his  generals  without  announcing  to  them  his 
resolution. 

With  rage  and  humiliation  gnawing  at  his  heart,  he  ordered  the  retreat  by 
the  northern  road. 

The  story  of  that  retreat  is  familiar  to  everyone.     The  starving,  diseased, 


MOSCOW 


441 


disorganised,  and  mutinous  columns  were  followed  by  the  Cossacks  like  a  flock 
of  vultures  or  a  pack  of  wolves,  and  the  Russian  Grand  Army  was  never  far 
distant.  The  French|left  Moscow  120,000  strong;  but  by  the  time  they  reached 
Viazma,  on  the  Wop,^they  were  reduced  to  one-half  On  the  6th  November, 
the  Russian  winter  set  in  with  severity.  The  men  now  died  like  rotten  sheep. 
The  survivors  at  length  reached  Smolensk,  to  which  convoys  of  provisions  had 
been  sent.     On  the  14th  of  November,  Bonaparte  left  Smolensk  with  about 


THE    RETREAT   FROM    MOSCOW. 
After  a  lithograph  by  Willette. 


40,000  men  able  to  bear  arms,  but  had  to  clear  the  way  by  fighting,  and  was 
incessantly  harassed  in  rear. 

Frost  and  snow,  the  nipping  blasts  of  night,  which  howled  over  the  treeless 
houseless  plains,  killed  more  than  the  swords  and  spears  of  the  Cossacks,  who 
swarmed  around.  The  retreating  army  owed  its  safety  solely  to  dread  of  the 
Russians  to  drive  a  defeated  foe  to  desperation,  and  to  the  awe  still  inspired  by 
the  name  of  Napoleon. 

On  the  1 6th,  17th,  and  i8th,  actions  were  fought,  in  which  the  French  lost 
116  cannon.  They  had  abandoned  nearly  that  number  in  Smolensk.  They 
lost  26,000  prisoners,  10,000  killed,  and  300  officers. 


442 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


Disorganisation  ensued  in  the  army.  The  horses  had  perished,  or  were 
reserved  for  the  wounded.  Napoleon  himself  walked,  silent,  discouraged 
wrathful,  with  a  birch-rod  in  his  hand,  to  save  himself  from  falling  on  the  icy 
roads. 

When  he  reached  Oresa,  in  Lithuania,  his  Grand  Army  had  dwindled  to 
12,000  men  ;  but,  on  approaching  the  river  Berezina,  he  was  joined  by  a  rescue 
corps  of  nearly  50,000  men.  One-half  of  the  army  thus  reinforced  was  lost  in 
effecting  the   passage  of  the  river.     The   previous  night  had   been  spent  by 

Napoleon  in  a  miserable 
cabin,  "  great  tears  running 
slowly  down  his  cheeks,  which 
were  paler  than  usual."  *  That 
any  passed  at  all  was  due  to 
the  bungling  of  the  Russian 
general. 

After  this  terrible  passage, 
hardly  the  semblance  of  an 
army  remained.  Marshal  Ney, 
with  difficulty,  was  able  to 
hold  together  three  thousand 
men  to  form  a  rear-guard,  to 
protect  the  demoralised  and 
timorous  rout  from  the  lances 
of  the  Cossacks. 

The  Emperor  marched  in 
the  midst  of  a  guard  called 
"the  Sacred  Squadron,"  com- 
posed of  officers  combined  for 
his  protection. 

On  the  5  th  December 
Napoleon  reached  Smorgoni. 
He  there  collected  his  mar- 
shals round  him,  and  dictated 
the  famous  29th  bulletin,  in 
which,  for  the  first  and  last 
time,  he  told  the  whole  truth,  frankly  confessing  that,  except  the  Guards,  the 
Grand  Army  was  no  more.  At  10  o'clock  on  the  night  of  the  6th  of  December 
he  stole  away  from  the  wretched  remnant,  as  he  had  stolen  away  from  the 
typhus-stricken  wreck  of  his  army  in  Egypt,  and  in  a  sledge,  well  wrapped 
in  furs,  set  out  for  the  French  capital,  leaving  the  command  of  the  army  to 
Murat. 

"  On  the  morrow,  at  break  of  day,  the  army  knew  all.  The  impression  pro- 
duced by  the  news  cannot  be  described.  Discouragement  was  at  its  height, 
many   soldiers   blasphemed,  and    reproached   the    Emperor   with   abandoning 

*  Constant,  Memoirs^  v.  127. 


IHIHHRf^  V  0^; .  ^H 

V 

i^€   ' 

'^tif  *  Jt'^^^Mf    jffif 

^.       4 

^^  *Wl^  4^^^feM^^^^^^^^S^^^^B 

H 

NAPOLEON    MUSING   OVER    HIS    MAPS   AT    NIGHT. 
After  a  sketch  by  Germain  Bapst. 


MOSCOW  443 

them ;  there  rose  a  general  cry  of  malediction.  .  .  .  That  night  the  cold 
became  more  intense.  It  must  have  been  very  bitter,  for  birds  were  found 
frozen  on  the  ground.  Soldiers  seated  themselves,  their  heads  in  their  hands, 
and  their  bodies  bowed,  so  as  the  less  to  feel  the  void  in  their  stomachs,  fell 
asleep,  and  were  found  dead  in  this  position.  .  .  .  The  artillerymen  held  their 
hands  to  the  nostrils  of  the  horses,  to  find  a  little  warmth  in  their  breath.  The 
flesh  of  these  beasts  became  the  ordinary  food  of  the  soldiers."* 

The  Emperor  reached  Paris  on  the  i8th  December.  As  he  stood  in  the 
luxurious  and  splendid  apartment  of  the  Tuileries,  warming  himself  before  a 
blazing  fire,  he  said, "  Gentlemen,  it  is  much  pleasanter  here  than  in  Moscow." 

He  very  soon  shook  off  his  despondency,  and  his  self-reliance  returned. 
Constant  says : — 

"  I  found  him  absolutely  the  same  as  he  was  before  entering  on  the  cam- 
paign ;  the  same  serenity  was  pictured  on  his  face.  One  would  have  said  that 
the  past  had  been  nothing  to  him,  and  that,  already  living  in  the  future,  he  again 
saw  victory  ranged  under  his  banners,  and  his  enemies  humbled  and  conquered. 
...  It  was  easy  to  see  that  he  was  mainly  occupied  with  the  adventure  of  the 
General  Malet."  f 

This  was  a  conspiracy,  nearly  successful,  that  had  occurred  whilst  he  was  in 
retreat ;  and  it  was  probably  alarm  for  his  throne  which  made  him  desert  his 
army.  The  streets  of  Paris  were  full  of  women  in  mourning  for  husbands, 
brothers,  and  sons  lost  in  the  Russian  campaign.  Napoleon  alone  seemed 
insensible  to  the  terrible  sufferings  and  loss  of  life  that  had  resulted  from  his 
mad  scheme. 

"  The  great  error  of  Napoleon,"  says  Byron,  in  a  note  to  the  Third  Canto  of 
Childe  Harold,  "  was  a  continued  obtrusion  on  mankind  of  his  want  of  all  com- 
munity of  feeling  for  or  with  them  ;  perhaps  more  offensive  to  human  vanity 
than  the  active  cruelty  of  more  trembling  and  suspicious  tyranny.  Such  were 
his  speeches  to  public  assemblies  as  well  as  to  individuals,  and  the  single  ex- 
pression which  he  is  said  to  have  used,  on  returning  to  Paris  after  the  Russian 
winter  had  destroyed  his  army,  rubbing  his  hands  over  a  fire,  *  This  is  pleasanter 
than  Moscow,'  would  probably  alienate  more  favour  from  his  cause,  than  the 
destruction  and  reverses  which  led  to  the  remark." 

*  Constant,  v.  138.  t  Ibid.^  161. 


I 


XLVIII 

LEIPZIG 

(1813) 

N  18 1 2,  before  the  Russian  campaign,  Marshal  Rapp  wrote  to  Napoleon  :- 


"  If  your  Majesty  should  experience  reverses,  you  may  depend  upon  it  that 
both  Russians  and  Germans  will  rise  up  in  a  mass  to  shake  off  the  yoke.  There 
will  be  a  crusade,  and  all  your  allies  will  abandon  you.  Even  the  King  of 
Bavaria,  on  whom  you  rely  so  confidently,  will  join  the  Coalition.  I  rely  on  the 
King  of  Saxony  only.  He,  perhaps,  may  remain  faithful  to  you  ;  but  his  sub- 
jects will  force  him  to  make  common  cause  with  your  enemies."  * 

What  Rapp  had  foreseen,  and  not  he  alone,  was  now  to  take  place.  Napoleon, 
by  decree  on  the  loth  December,  18 10,  had  united  all  the  coast  lands  of  the 
Baltic  to  the  Empire  ;  Oldenburg,  the  north  of  Hanover,  which  had  been  given 
to  the  kingdom  of  Westphalia,  were  taken  from  it  again  ;  all  the  Hanseatic 
Towns  were  also  appropriated,  and  this  new  Baltic  province  was  divided  into 
five  departments,  which  were  united  with  the  seven  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Rhine.  The  Free  Towns  had  been  frightfully  pillaged.  Not  only  was  their 
trade  killed,  but  such  enormous  contributions  had  been  levied  on  them  as 
reduced  the  citizens  to  indigence.  Prussia  was  burdened  with  a  charge  of  129 
millions  of  francs,  along  with  contributions  in  kind  of  a  thousand  millions,  and 
then  a  further  154J  millions  was  demanded.  A  united  people  had  been 
trampled  under  foot,  insulted,  and  their  kingdom  torn  to  shreds,  and  given  as  a 
prey  to  others.  /  In  the  Austrian  Empire,  Hungarian,  German,  Czech,  Croat, 
were  all  of  one  mind,  influenced  by  one  burning  rage  against  the  conqueror. 
After  the  humiliating  Treaty  of  Vienna,  when  Francis  appeared  in  his 
capital,  he  was  received  with  rapture  of  love  and  sympathy.  When  Napoleon 
heard  of  this,  he  was  staggered.  "  What  a  people  !  "  he  exclaimed.  "If  this  had 
happened  to  me,  would  the  French,  the  Parisians,  have  thus  received  me  ?  " 

Upon  the  arrival  of  the  wreck  of  the  Grand  Army  in  Germany,  no  one  out- 
side France  doubted  that  the  hour  of  the  emancipation  of  the  Fatherland  had 
struck.  Whilst  Arndt,  with  his  Catechism  for  the  German  Warrior  arid  Defender, 
braced  his  countrymen  to  the  holy  work  of  a  crusade.  Stein  sought  to  move  the 
Czar  to  carry  the  war  beyond  the  confines  of  Russia.     He  found  this  easy.     In 

*    BOURRIENNE,  iii.  30. 

444 


LEIPZIG  445 

his  fantastic  vanity,  Alexander  thought  to  exhibit  himself  before  an  admiring 
world  as  its  liberator,  and  to  receive  the  crown  of  Poland  as  the  reward  of  his 
work. 

But  Prussia  was  in  a  desperate  condition.  In  spite  of  the  glowing  hate  that 
burnt  in  every  heart,  it  was  not  possible  to  think  of  open  defiance,  because  of  the 
French  troops  lodged  in  her  very  marrow,  holding  her  fortresses,  ready  to  crush 
every  uprising.  Hardenberg,  the  Prussian  minister,  accordingly  pressed  on  the 
arming  of  the  nation,  that  the  mask  might  be  cast  aside  as  soon  as  ever  the 
alliance  of  Austria  was  secured. 

This  cautious  policy,  so  distasteful  to  all  patriots,  was  followed,  when 
suddenly  the  joyous  news  ran,  like  an  electric  shock,  through  the  land,  that  a 
German  creneral  had  dared  to  do  what  a  German  minister  had  shrunk  from 
ordering.  General  Yorck  von  Wiirtemberg  had,  of  his  own  accord,  broken  the 
tie  which  had  bound  the  Prussian  auxiliaries  to  France,  and  had  gone  over  and 
joined  hands  with  the  Russians,  whom  he  had  been  sent  to  resist. 

The  Prussian  contingent  formed  a  portion  of  the  army  of  Macdonald,  and 
was  planted  on  the  extreme  left  wing,  in  the  Baltic  provinces,  and  their  orders 
were  to  cover  the  retreating  remnants  of  the  Grand  Army,  and  to  defend  the 
frontier  against  the  Russians.  Yorck  might  have  abandoned  the  French 
alliance  at  any  moment,  and  if  he  had  done  so  earlier,  might  have  annihilated 
the  broken  army  of  their  oppressors.  But  he  was  too  honourable  and  generous 
to  do  this.  He  waited  till  he  received  from  the  King  of  Prussia,  his  master, 
the  vague  permission  "to  act  as  circumstances  advised." 

This  counsel  allowed  the  purpose  of  the  King  to  transpire^  and  when  the 
Czar,  on  the  i8th  December,  gave  a  written  promise  of  alliance  with  Prussia, 
and  an  undertaking  not  to  lay  down  his  arms  till  that  State  had  recovered  its 
former  extent  before  dismemberment  in  1805,  then  Yorck  took  the  decisive 
step,  and  on  the  30th  December,  18 12,  he  signed  a  Convention  at  Tauroggen, 
whereby  he  agreed  to  withdraw  between  Memel  and  Tilsit  to  await  further 
orders  from  the  King.  He  took  the  entire  responsibility  on  himself  "  I  swear 
to  your  Majesty,"  he  wrote  to  the  King  of  Prussia,  "that  I  will  await  the  fatal 
lead  as  calmly  on  the  sand-heap  as  on  the  battle-field  whereon  I  grew  grey." 
The  Chancellor,  Hardenberg,  was  alarmed.  But  the  die  was  cast :  a  quiver  of 
joy,  of  impatience  to  be  up  and  doing,  thrilled  through  the  German  people.  The 
King,  alarmed,  and  dreading  the  results,  fled  to  Breslau,  which  he  reached  on 
the  23rd  January,  18 13.  There  was  now  no  retreat  possible,  and  on  the 
3rd  February  he  called  out  the  volunteers,  and  on  the  28th,  at  Kalisch,  signed 
an  agreement  of  alliance  with  the  Czar.  This  was  kept  secret  from  the  French, 
but  on  the  i6th  March  the  King  proclaimed  war,  and  on  the  following  day 
issued  his  "  Appeal  to  my  People  "  to  fly  to  arms.  "  There  is  no  other  issue," 
he  said  therein,  "  than  to  achieve  an  honourable  peace,  or  to  perish  gloriously." 
The  response  was  unanimous,  so  much  so  as  to  move  the  King  ;  such  devotion, 
such  enthusiasm,  he  had  not  expected,  and  it  was  Scharnhorst's  proudest  day 
when  he  presented  himself  before  his  monarch,  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  young 
and  old  volunteers.     Every  class  rivalled  the  others  in  its  zeal  to  aid  the  State 


446        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

in  its  poverty.  Gold  had  long  ago  been  drained  away  into  France,  but  the  last 
coins  were  cheerfully  flung  into  the  war  chest.  Brides  gave  up  their  very 
wedding-rings,  and  the  girls  cut  off  their  abundant  hair  to  sell  it  for  money 
to  assist  in  the  defence  of  Fatherland. 


Signature  at  Erfurt,  13  October,  1813. 

A  writer  of  the  time,  an  eye-witness,  in  a  letter,  says,  "  It  is  impossible  not 
to  be  electrified  by  beholding  the  ardour  with  which  the  people  give  vent  to  the 
national  enthusiasm,  so  long  stifled  under  the  yoke  of  an  ignominious  policy, 
and  overawed  by  the  terrors  of  the  French  legions.  The  King's  sister  has  sent 
all  her  ornaments  to  the  public  treasury ;  and  at  this  instant  all  women,  sacri- 
ficing their  most  precious  objects,  are  hastening  to  send  theirs,  down  to  the 
minutest  articles,  for  the  same  patriotic  purpose.  When  I  say  all  women,  I  in 
no  degree  exaggerate  ;  for  I  do  not  believe  you  can  find  a  single  exception,  save 
in  the  most  indigent  class,  who  do  not  possess  a  single  golden  ornament.  All 
the  marriage  ornaments  have  been  laid  on  the  altar  of  their  country,  and  the 
Government  has  given  them  in  exchange  others  of  iron,  with  the  inscription,  "/ 
gave  gold  for  iron,  1813."  These  ornaments,  so  precious  from  the  moral  interest 
of  their  origin,  have  already  acquired  a  certain  intrinsic  value  from  the  beauty 
of  their  workmanship.  The  streets  are  filled  with  nothing  but  women,  old  men, 
and  children  ;  not  an  unwounded  man,  capable  of  bearing  arms,  is  to  be  seen. 
A  barren  land  of  sand,  covered  with  pines,  exhibits  the  astonishing  spectacle  of 
200,000  men  in  arms."* 

While  Goethe  was  incapable  of  understanding  and  appreciating  the  mighty 
movement,  and  sneered  at  it,  saying,  "■  Rattle  your  chains  ;  the  man  is  still  too 
great  for  you,"  Korner  burst  forth  into  glorious  song,  "  The  people  rise,  the 
tempest  bursts  !  "  and  Arndt  bade  all  Germans  clasp  hands  and  swear,  "  The 
time  of  slavery  is  at  an  end."  Max  von  Schenkendorf,  in  spite  of  his  paralysed 
right  arm,  girded  for  the  battle.  Fouque  sang,  "  Frisch  auf  zum  frohlichen 
Jagen,"  which  was  caught  up  and  thundered  by  the  volunteers,  as  they  marched 
against  the  enemy. 

From  that  moment  "  Prussia  "  and  "  Fatherland  "  became  synonymous  words. 
The  disciplining  of  the  Landwehr  went  on  with  extraordinary  rapidity,  but  the 

*  PiZARRO  :   17th  November,  1813,  in  Hardenberg,  Mimoires,  Paris,  1829-35,  xii.  565. 


LEIPZIG 


447 


true  military  strength  and  experience  were  only  to  be  acquired  on  the  battle- 
field. The  Landsturm  consisted  of  all  men  from  fifteen  to  sixty  not  already 
enrolled;  they  were  called  out  on  the  2ist  April,  not  to  be  employed  in  the 
field,  but  for  convoy  of  munitions,  spying,  guerilla  warfare,  and  fortification 
work. 

Before  a  rising  wave  of  a  whole  population  in  Germany,  such  as  had  been  in 
Spain,  but  of  very  superior  quality  and  menace,  Napoleon  said  that  it  would 
be  in  vain  for  him  to  think  of  carrying  the  war  into  Russia.  Denmark  he 
could  reckon  on ;  the  Rhenish  Confederacy  was  also  as  yet  but  little  affected 


r 

i 

A 

1 

1 

f 

1 

1 

wmw.jt^     ^  \ 

[.T^^ 

■  ^ 

wR 

".^••\:^^K 

-  ^^kmH^H 

^s 

i'      '    >«< 

K/'X  ^ 

,  s  *"'<< 

mm 

SIRE,    YOU    MAY    RECKON    ON    US   AS   ON    YOUR   OLD   GUARD. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


by  the  movement.  Not  so  Saxony,  deeply  committed  to  him.  Frightened  by 
the  agitation  among  his  people,  and  the  threatening  attitude  of  the  Emperor 
of  Russia  and  the  King  of  Prussia,  Frederick  Augustus  of  Saxony  fled  from 
his  kingdom. 

Meanwhile,  Napoleon  left  no  stone  unturned  to  form  an  army,  with  the 
object  of  shattering  Prussia  to  atoms.  One  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
men  were  ordered  to  be  raised  by  the  senatus  consultum  of  April,  1 8 1 3  ;  among 
these  were  10,000  guards  of  honour  to  surround  the  Emperor.  In  Prussia  was 
a  French  army,  consisting  of  30,000  veteran  troops,  commanded  by  Prince 
Eugene ;  Magdeburg,  Wittenberg,  Torgau,  Danzig,  the  Hanseatic  Towns,  were 
in  the  hands  of  the  French. 


448        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

But  now  appeared  a  cloud  that  arose  out  of  the  sea,  and  threatened  Napo- 
leon from  another  quarter.  Louis  XVIII.  issued  a  proclamation  to  the  French, 
which  was  extensively  circulated.  Bonaparte  had  come  to  think  that  the 
Bourbons  were  forgotten. 

"The  reverses  of  the  Russian  campaign  might  have  been  repaired,"  says 
Madame  Junot.  "  The  affection  of  a  great  people  would  still  have  furnished 
their  Sovereign  with  immense  resources  ;  but  before  Napoleon  could  ask  for 
proofs  of  that  affection,  an  enemy  suddenly  started  up  before  him  on  which  he 
had  never  calculated.  This  enemy  appeared  like  a  man  rising  from  the  grave  to 
many  who  had  abandoned  the  white  flag,  sincerely  believing  its  cause  to  be  lost 
for  ever.  Napoleon,  who  for  fifteen  years  had  occupied  the  throne  of  France, 
his  claim  to  which  was  legitimately  acquired  by  his  services  and  the  voice  of 
the  people,  now  heard  the  appalling  words,  'Uswper!'  and  'Legitimacy !' 
That  which  he  justly  regarded  as  the  rightful  inheritance  of  his  son  was  now 
about  to  be  wrested  from  him  in  the  name  of  the  old  cause,  which  he  had  every 
reason  to  believe  was  lost  and  forgotten.  This  new  adversary  was  more  fearful 
than  all  the  rest." 

But  it  was  not  from  any  claim  that  the  Bourbons  had  on  the  hearts  of  the 
people  that  danger  was  to  be  apprehended,  but  from  weariness  of  incessant  war, 
disgust  at  even  the  name  of  military  glory,  and  resentment  at  unlimited  con- 
scription. Already  it  was  a  hard  matter  to  get  the  recruits  together;  they  fled 
to  the  woods  and  rocks,  they  maimed  themselves  to  escape  military  service  ; 
and  flying  corps  had  to  be  sent  round  the  Departments,  armed  with  chains  and 
instruments  of  torture,  to  bind  the  unwilling  conscripts,  and  to  force  from  their 
parents  the  secret  of  where  their  boys  were  concealed.  The  people  panted 
for  peace,  and  looked  on  Napoleon  as  a  tyrant  lusting  for  war,  insatiable  in  his 
ambition,  whom  they  were  willing  to  exchange  even  for  a  Bourbon,  if  thereby 
they  might  retain  their  sons,  and  plough  their  fields  in  tranquillity. 

Nor  was  this  all.  In  spite  of  respectful  forms,  still  employed  by  the  two 
Chambers,  and  the  unanimity  with  which  the  budget  was  voted,  it  was  evident 
that  the  Senators  were  becoming  alarmed,  and  the  Deputies  inclined  to  assert 
their  independence.  The  Senate,  in  an  addresss  to  the  Emperor,  hinted  that 
peace  had  been  promised,  and  that  it  was  time  for  the  promise  to  be  fulfilled. 
In  the  Legislative  Body,  it  was  protested  that  the  budgets  were  not  sufficiently 
clear,  and  but  for  the  urgency  of  the  case  would  not  have  been  voted  without 
further  discussion  ;  and  in  this  body,  the  old  Girondin  Laine,  and  Dumolard, 
led  a  veritable  party  of  opposition. 

Pamphlets  and  leaflets  appeared,  were  widely  distributed  and  read,  and  were 
seized  by  the  police.  They  proved  to  contain  bitter  invectives  against  Napo- 
leon, and  resentment  against  the  oppression  to  which  France  was  subjected 
under  his  sceptre.  Indications  appeared  everywhere  that  his  popularity  was 
gone. 

The  generals  were  also  discontented.  They  likewise  were  sick  of  warfare, 
and  they  foresaw  disaster. 

But,  greater  than  their  craving  for  rest,  were  the  disgust  and  resentment  that 
filled  the  hearts  of  the  marshals  and  generals  at  the  insolence  with  which  they 


LEIPZIG 


449 


were  treated,  at  the  manner  in  which  their  laurels  were  denied  them,  and 
plucked  away  for  the  adornment  of  their  master's  crown,  and  the  obloquy  that 
fell  on  them,  the  unjust  condemnation  to  which  they  were  subjected,  not  when 
they  had  committed  errors,  but  when  he  had  made  a  mistake  that  led  to  disaster. 
Bernadotte,  Prince  Regent  of  Sweden,  had  been  so  insulted  that  he  entered 
into  coalition  against  him.  His  brother-in-law,  Murat,  angry  because  Napoleon 
had  abused  him  for  deserting  the  wreck  of  the  Grand  Army  at  Posen — doing 
exactly  what  he  himself  had  done — wrote,  or  rather  dictated,  violent  letters,  for 
the  King  of  Naples  was  too  illiterate  to  be  able  to  write  himself.  Bonaparte 
had  written  to  his  sister  Caroline,  Murat's  wife,  a  letter  in  which  he  told  her  in 


"attention  !    THE    EMPEROR's    EYE    IS   ON    US." 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 

plain  terms  that  her  husband  was  an  ungrateful  scoundrel,  a  liar,  traitor,  and 
(in  politics)  a  fool,  and  that  he  was  unworthy  of  the  close  family  connection 
subsisting  with  himself.     Murat's  answer  ran  \— 

"  The  wound  on  my  honour  is  inflicted.  You  have  insulted  an  old  com- 
panion in  arms,  faithful  to  you  in  dangers,  not  a  small  means  of  your  victories, 
a  supporter  of  your  greatness,  the  reviver  of  your  ebbing  courage  on  the  i8th 
Brumaire.  Your  Majesty  says  that,  when  one  has  the  honour  to  belong  to  your 
illustrious  family,  one  ought  to  do  nothing  to  hazard  its  interests  or  obscure  its 
splendour.  But  I,  Sire,  tell  you  in  reply  that  your  family  has  received  quite  as 
much  honour  as  it  gave  me,  by  uniting  me  with  Caroline.  A  thousand  times, 
though  a  King,  I  sigh  after  the  day  when,  as  a  plain  officer,  I  had  superiors,  but 
not  a  master.  Having  become  a  King,  but  finding  myself  in  this  supreme  rank 
tyrannised  over  by  your  Majesty,  and  domineered  over  in  my  own  family,  I 
have  felt  more  than  ever  the  need  of  independence,  the  thirst  for  liberty.  You 
afflict,  you  sacrifice  to  your  suspicion  the  men  most  faithful  to  you,  the  men 
who  best  served  you  in  the  stupendous  road  to  your  fortune.     I  can  no  longer 

2    G 


450        THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

withhold  from  my  people  some  restoration  of  commerce,  some  remedy  for  the 
terrible  evils  inflicted  on  them  by  the  maritime  war.  Our  mutual  confidence 
and  faith  are  gone."  * 

One  of  his  generals  said,  as  far  back  as  the  campaign  of  1809,  which  saw 
Marshal  Lannes  and  many  other  officers  of  the  highest  rank  numbered  with  the 
slain,  "  This  little  coquin  will  never  stop  until  he  gets  us  all  killed — all." 

Massena,  Augereau,  Rapp,  all  were  dissatisfied,  and  continued  to  serve  him 
with  inner  resentment,  and  impatient  to  have  done  with  incessant  war. 

His  ministers  saw  that  he  was  hurrying  to  destruction,  and  began  to  scheme 
and  correspond  in  secret  how  to  save  themselves,  and  pluck  some  spoil  and 
advantage  to  themselves  out  of  the  debacle  which  was  imminent. 

The  conscripts,  the  veterans,  all  the  mighty  host,  poured  over  the  Rhine 
against  the  Prussians  and  Russians,  marched  without  knowing  for  what  they 
were  to  fight ;  whereas,  opposed  to  them,  there  was  not  a  man,  down  to  the 
smallest  drummer-boy,  who  did  not  know  that  he  stood  in  the  ranks  to  defend 
his  home  and  his  country.  In  1793  France  fought  for  a  principle,  Prussia  for 
a  man.     The  position,  and  consequent  result,  now,  in  181 3,  was  reversed. 

In  his  first  campaigns  Napoleon  had  seen  many  a  rout.  When  he  gained 
a  day,  the  enemy  broke  up,  and  scattered  in  wild  terror  and  utter  confusion. 
All  this  was  altered  now.  Routs  of  this  nature  he  did  see,  but  not  in  the 
enemy,  though  defeated,  but  among  his  own  forces.  The  former,  though  driven 
back  from  a  hard-contested  field,  drew  away  without  leaving  a  standard,  a  gun, 
a  prisoner,  in  his  hands ;  whereas,  when  he  was  beaten,  his  motley  host  dis- 
solved at  once  into  a  rabble  of  panic-stricken  fugitives. 

"  Every  victory  we  gain,"  said  one  of  his  marshals,  "  serves  only  as  a  lesson 
to  teach  the  Russians  how  to  defeat  us." 

At  Llitzen  Napoleon  gained  one  of  his  fruitless  victories.  On  the  eve  he 
lost  his  marshal,  Bessieres. 

In  none  of  his  campaigns  did  Napoleon  exhibit  higher  capacities  as  a 
tactician  than  in  this  campaign  of  181 3.  His  handling  of  the  troops  at  Llitzen 
was  magnificent ;  and  his  tactics  at  Bautzen,  when  he  turned  the  right  of  the 
Allies  in  their  entrenchments,  was  one  of  the  finest  achievements  ever  accom- 
plished. He  had  confidently  expected,  on  resuming  the  offensive,  to  strike 
a  grand  blow,  as  at  Jena,  and,  by  a  single  battle,  to  recover  Leipzig,  Dresden, 
and  Berlin.  But  the  victories  of  Llitzen  and  of  Bautzen  led  to  no  decisive 
result ;  the  Allies  retired  in  good  order. 

Two  days  after  Llitzen,  Bonaparte's  favourite  aide-de-camp,  General  Duroc^ 
was  laid  low  by  a  spent  cannon-ball.  Duroc  was  his  old  and  faithful  com- 
panion, one  of  the  few  who  were  disinterestedly  attached  to  Bonaparte ;  and  of 
the  still  smaller  number  who  could  inspire  Napoleon  with  a  reciprocal  attach- 
ment. It  was  a  superstition  too,  both  at  the  French  Court  and  with  the  French 
army,  that  there  was  a  sympathy,  or  mysterious  connection,  between  the  fate  of 
Duroc  and  the  fortunes  of  his  master. 


CoLLETTA,  Storia  di  Napoli. 


I 


LEIPZIG 


451 


Napoleon  sincerely  felt  the  loss  of  Duroc.  It  unnerved  him.  Constant 
says : — 

"  The  Emperor  gave  mechanically  some  orders,  and  returned  to  the  camp. 
When  inside  the  square  of  the  guard,  he  seated  himself  on  a  stool  before  his 
tent,  his  head  bowed,  his  hands  joined,  and  thus  remained  for  nearly  an  hour, 
without  uttering  a  single  word.  However,  as  measures  essential  for  the  morrow 
had  to  be  taken.  General  Drouot  approached  him,  and,  with  a  voice  broken  by 
sobs,  asked  what  was  to  be  done.  '  A  demain  tout ! '  replied  the  Emperor.  Not 
another  word  did  he  say."  * 

The  allied  forces,  after  the  battle  of  Bautzen,  retired  to  the  Leignitz  and  the 
Oder,  and  province  after  province  was  over- 
run by  the  French.  Nevertheless,  Napoleon 
was  far  from  easy.  An  entire  population  was 
in  arms  in  his  rear,  and  several  disasters 
occurred  to  his  communications.  He  needed 
reinforcements  greatly,  after  the  frightful 
losses  at  Liitzen  and  Bautzen.  But  if  his 
position  was  not  without  its  disadvantage  and 
danger,  the  Allies  required  time  far  more 
than  did  he.  They  also  were  calling  up  fresh 
troops ;  but,  more  than  that,  they  were  in 
correspondence  with  Austria  and  Sweden, 
and  were  confident,  in  a  few  weeks,  of  obtain- 
ing their  assistance. 

Napoleon  ought  to  have  seen,  from  the 
line  of  retreat  adopted  by  them,  that  they 
calculated  on  the  support  of  Austria,  but  he 
was  rocked  in  confidence,  believing  that  his 
alliance  with  the  Imperial  Hapsburg  House 
had  secured  him  in  that  quarter.     He  knew, 

moreover,  what  jealousies  existed  between  Austria  and  Prussia,  and  counted 
on  them.  Accordingly,  he  committed  the  fatal  mistake  of  agreeing  to  an 
armistice.  He  had  indeed  proposed  it,  hoping  by  a  stroke  of  cunning  to  detach 
Alexander  from  the  Coalition,  and  engage  him  in  separate  negotiations  with 
himself  But  the  Czar  was  proof  against  these  proposals,  and  he  received  them 
in  a  full  council,  in  the  presence  of  the  Austrian  minister. 

Finding  that  he  could  not  succeed  in  a  separate  negotiation,  Napoleon  agreed 
to  an  armistice,  which  was  signed  on  June  4th ;  and  almost  directly  after  the 
signature,  allowed  a  body  of  his  men,  under  General  Fournier,  to  surround  the 
corps  of  Volunteers  under  Liitzow,  five  hundred  strong,  and  cut  them  to  pieces. 
Among  those  slaughtered  was  the  poet  Korner,  whose  patriotic  songs  had  stirred 
the  heart  of  Germany.  When  the  Volunteers  saw  themselves  surrounded,  before 
the  attack  commenced,  Korner  advanced  before  the  lines  to  parley  with  the 
French  general,  and  remind  him  of  the  armistice.     But  Fournier  exclaimed, 


NAPOLEON   SEATED. 
From  a  contemporary  engraving. 


Constant,  v.  211. 


452 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


"  The  armistice  is  for  all  the  world  except  you  !  "  and  cut  him  down.  This  out- 
rage on  the  laws  of  war  among  civilised  people  roused  the  Germans  to  fury,  and 
especially  exasperated  the  Saxons,  who  were  allies  of  the  French,  for  Korner 
was  a  Saxon  by  birth. 

The  armistice  was  to  last  from  the  5th  June  to  the  22nd  of  July;  and 
Bonaparte  entered  Dresden  and  surrounded  himself  there  with  a  Court. 

Austria  offered  her  mediation,  and  Metternich  was  sent  to  Dresden,  as 
plenipotentiary  of  Austria,  to  negotiate  a  peace.  He  proposed,  in  a  Conference 
that  lasted  seven  hours  : — 

1.  That  the  limits  of  France 
should  be  restrained  to  the 
west  bank  of  the  Rhine. 

2.  That  Italy  should  be 
constituted  a  kingdom,  inde- 
pendent of  France. 

3.  That  the  Protectorate 
over  the  Confederacy  of  the 
Rhine,  and  over  the  Helvetian 
Republic,  should  be  abandoned. 

These  proposals  produced 
an  explosion  of  rage  in  Na- 
poleon ;  they  revealed  to  him 
plainly  that  the  Court  of 
Vienna  had  resolved  on  enter- 
ing the  Coalition. 

Metternich  in  his  Memoirs^ 
gives  us  an  account  of  the 
scene. 

"  You  want  war  !  "  ex- 
claimed Napoleon  ;  "  you  shall 
have  it.  I  give  you  a  rendez- 
vous at  Vienna."  Then  he 
poured  forth  a  torrent  of 
technical  details  on  the  forces  at  the  disposal  of  Austria.  "  I  married  the 
daughter  of  Francis,"  cried  he;  "I  said  to  myself  at  the  time,  'You  are  making; 
a  mistake.'  But  the  thing  is  done ;  and  I  regret  it  now  that  it  is  too  late." 
Then  he  wandered  off  to  the  Prussian  campaign.  "  That  was  a  rough  experi- 
ence," he  said ;  "  but  I  got  out  of  it  in  admirable  style." 

Metternich  listened  coldly  to  this  stream  of  words,  and  only  ventured  to- 
remark  that  France  was  exhausted  and  had  an  army  of  lads  only.  Napoleons 
answered,  "  You  are  not  a  soldier.     You  do  not  understand  what  passes  in  the 

mind  of  a  soldier.     I  grew  up  on  battle-fields,  and  I  don't  care  a for  the 

lives  of  a  million  men."     So  saying,  he  threw  his  cap  across  the  room. 

As  Metternich  prepared  to  leave.  Napoleon  could  not  refrain  from  flinging 
an  insult  in  the  face  of  the  plenipotentiary.     "  Ah  !  Metternich,"  he  asked,  in  his- 


NAPOLEON. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


THE   STANDARD   OF  THE   CHASSEURS   OF  THE  GUARD. 

On  a  green  silk  ground  leaves  of  oak  and  laurel,  embroidered  in  gold  and  silver.      In  the  centre  a  hunting-horn 
in  silver,  with  "  E.  F."  in  the  centre  in  gold. 


LEIPZIG  455 

harshest  tones,  "  How  much  has  England  paid  you  to  make  war  upon  me  ?  "  At 
the  door,  the  minister  of  the  Court  of  Austria  turned  and  cast  a  Parthian  arrow 
at  the  Emperor.  "  Sire,"  said  he,  "  you  are  lost.  I  had  the  presentiment  as  I 
came  here ;  now,  in  leaving,  I  know  it." 

Napoleon  had  committed  a  grievous  error  in  granting  an  armistice,  giving 
Austria  time  to  assemble  her  forces.  He  aggravated  his  error  now  by  extending 
it  twenty  days,  just  the  time  desired  by  Schwarzenberg  for  completing  his 
armaments.  On  the  30th  June,  the  tidings  reached  Napoleon  at  Dresden  that 
Wellington  had  won  the  battle  of  Vittoria,  by  which  the  French  were  swept 
as  by  a  whirlwind  from  the  north  and  west  of  Spain ;  and  everyone  saw  that 
nothing  could  arrest  the  entry  of  the  British  forces  into  France  through  the 
valleys  of  the  Pyrenees. 

Fully  impressed  with  the  magnitude  of  the  disaster.  Napoleon  took  vigorous 
steps  to  remedy  it,  by  despatching  Soult  to  assume  supreme  command  over  the 
troops  still  at  his  disposal  in  the  south;  but  the  Emperor  Francis,  if  he  had 
hesitated  hitherto,  was  nerved  to  throw  his  weight  into  the  scale  against  France. 
From  the  moment  of  this  news  reaching  the  Allies,  hesitation  was  abandoned. 
Napoleon  commenced  a  series  of  fortifications  around  Dresden,  which  he  pur- 
posed converting  into  an  enormous  entrenched  camp.  But  now  that  the  resolve 
of  Austria  to  join  hands  with  Russia  and  Prussia  against  him  became  clear,  he 
was  forced  to  abandon  this  project,  for  if  he  remained  in  Dresden,  the  Austrian 
hosts  pouring  over  the  Bohemian  mountains  would  take  the  whole  line  of  the 
Elbe  in  rear. 

On  the  1 2th  August,  Austria  declared  war.  But  her  adhesion  to  the 
Coalition  was  not  without  disadvantage.  Francis  entered  into  the  compact  in 
half-hearted  mood.  He  disliked  the  popular  movement  which  had  manifested 
itself;  he  was  a  stranger  to  all  feeling  for  Germany  as  a  nation.  After  having 
surrendered  the  crown  of  Charlemagne  at  Frankfort,  he  was  indifferent  to  the 
fate  of  Fatherland.  He  by  no  means  desired  the  power  of  Napoleon  to  be 
broken.  What  he  really  desired  was  the  restoration  of  Trieste.  Had  the 
French  Emperor  agreed  to  that,  he  would  have  united  with  him  against  the 
Allies.  And  now  that  his  force  joined  those  of  the  Coalition,  the  Prussian  and 
Russian  armies  were  subjected  to  the  disadvantage  of  being  placed  under  the 
command-in-chief  of  Prince  Schwarzenberg.  On  the  other  hand,  hitherto  the 
Allies  had  been  inferior  in  number  to  the  host  invading  Prussia  and  Saxony ; 
now,  the  accession  of  1 50,000  men  from  Austria  altered  the  balance. 

Napoleon  was  led  to  a  fatal  mistake.  In  his  elaborate  plan  of  campaign,  he 
failed  to  perceive  that  he  had  passed  the  limit  of  what  machine-like  discipline 
and  organisation  can  do  with  agglomerations  of  men,  just  as,  ten  years  before, 
he  had  expected  impossibilities  of  combination  from  agglomerations  of  ships. 
Moreover,  he  still  reckoned  on  having  with  him  those  moral  forces  which  no 
longer  existed,  or  had  gone  over  to  the  enemy. 

Napoleon  knew  very  well  that  Prussia  was  the  soul  of  the  opposition,  and  in 
accordance  with  his  custom,  and  agreeably  to  the  decision  with  which  he  acted, 
he  at  once  resolved  on  striking  a  bold  and  crushing  blow  at  Berlin.     What  a 


456        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

tremendous  effect  would  be  produced  on  the  Allies  by  the  tidings  that  the 
capital  of  Prussia  was  taken,  and  given  over  to  the  flames !  From  Berlin  to 
the  Oder  and  the  Vistula  was  not  far.  Bernadotte,  indeed,  at  the  head  of 
150,000  men,  occupied  the  marches  of  the  lower  Elbe;  but  Napoleon  could 
hardly  believe  that  his  old  marshal,  the  brother-in-law  of  Joseph,  would  fight 
him.  He  knew  that  he  would  command  the  Northern  Army,  indeed,  but  hoped 
that  he  would  paralyse  its  action.  As  for  the  Prussian  Landwehr,  Napoleon 
despised  it.  He  did  not  take  the  insulted,  down-trodden  peasants  into  con- 
sideration at  all,  and  yet  it  was  they  who  wrought  his  ruin,  in  that  they  pur- 
posely deceived  him  and  his  staff  with  false  reports  as  to  the  position  and 
numbers  of  the  enemy. 

On  the  26th  of  August,  the  Allies  were  defeated  by  Napoleon  with  great 
loss,  before  Dresden  ;  but  this  was  the  last  victory  obtained  by  him  on  German 
soil,  though  he  supposed  it  to  be  the  prelude  to  another  series  of  triumphs. 

But  on  the  23rd  of  August,  a  murderous  conflict  had  taken  place  at  Gross- 
Beeren,  between  a  Prussian  division  of  the  North  Army  and  the  French.  The 
almost  untrained  peasantry  that  composed  it  rushed  upon  the  enemy,  and  beat 
down  entire  battalions  with  the  butt-ends  of  their  muskets,  while  the  Crown 
Prince  of  Sweden  (Bernadotte)  and  his  Swedes  looked  on  without  taking  any 
part.  The  French  lost  2,400  prisoners.  If  this  disaster  showed  Napoleon  that 
the  peasantry  had  become  a  power,  it  confirmed  him  in  his  belief  that  Berna- 
dotte would  not  draw  his  sword  against  his  countrymen  and  himself 

A  few  days  later,  Bliicher  in  Silesia  won  success.  Having  drawn  the  French 
across  the  river  Neisse,  he  drove  them,  after  a  desperate  engagement,  into  the 
river,  swollen  with  heavy  rains.  The  muskets  of  the  soldiers  had  been  rendered 
unserviceable  by  the  wet ;  and  Bliicher,  drawing  his  sabre  from  beneath  his 
cloak,  dashed  ahead,  exclaiming,  "  Forwards  !  " 

Several  thousand  French  were  drowned  or  bayoneted.  They  lost  103  guns^ 
18,000  prisoners,  and  a  great  number  were  killed.  Macdonald,  the  general  in 
command,  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  marshals,  escaped  almost  alone  to  Napoleon, 
at  Dresden.     "  Sire,"  said  the  defeated  general,  *•'  your  army  no  longer  exists." 

His  generals  had  been  thrown  back  from  every  side,  with  great  loss,  on  the 
Saxon  capital  ;  and  now,  as  he  prepared  to  check  the  advance  of  the  xA^llies,  by 
getting  between  them  and  Berlin,*  a  fresh  disappointment  befell  him.  The 
Bavarian  army  refused  to  fight  for  him  ;  it  went  over  to  the  Allies,  and  marched 
to  the  Main,  to  stand  across  his  path  if  he  attempted  to  retreat.  His  con- 
tingents from  the  Rhine  and  the  Saxons  became  restive,  and  broke  out  into 
mutiny,  or  slipped  away  and  joined  the  ranks  of  the  Allies.  A  Westphalian 
regiment,  with  arms  and  baggage,  deserted  on  the  eve  of  the  evacuation  of 
Dresden. 

Orders  had  been  given  for  a  general  concentration  at  Diiben,  and  the  im- 
pression throughout  the  army  was  that  Napoleon  was  intending  to  effect  a 
retreat  to  the  Rhine,  thence  through  Leipzig.  It  was  not  till  he  arrived  at 
Duben  that  he  announced  his  intention  of  making  a  rapid  march  on  Berlin. 

*  He  carried  out  the  same  plan  the  following  year  on  French  soil,  with  the  result  to  be  expected. 


LEIPZIG 


457 


*'  The  time,"  says  Constant,  "  was  unhappily  passed  when  the  expression  of 
the  intentions  of  the  Emperor  alone  sufficed,  and  was  regarded  as  a  signal  of 
victory.  The  chiefs  of  the  army,  hitherto  so  submissive,  began  to  reflect,  and 
permitted  themselves  to  disapprove  of  projects,  the  execution  of  which 
frightened  them.  When  the  intention  of  the  Emperor  was  made  known,  that 
he  purposed  marching  on  Berlin,  there  was  an  almost  general  outbreak  of  dis- 
content ;  the  generals  who  had  escaped  the  disasters  of  Moscow,  and  the 
dangers  of  the  double  campaign  in  Germany,  were  fatigued,  and  perhaps  eager 
to  enjoy  their  fortunes,  and  repose  in  the  bosoms  of  their  families.  Some  went 
so  far  as  to  accuse  the  Emperor  of  purposely  protracting  the  war.  *  Have  not 
enough  been  killed  ? '  they 
asked.  '  Do  you  want  us  all 
to  lay  our  bones  here  ? '  And 
these  complaints  were  not 
limited  to  secret  confidences, 
but  were  spoken  loud  enough 
to  reach  the  Emperor's  ears. 

"It  was  while  this  was  dis- 
cussed, that  the  news  of  the 
defection  of  Bavaria  reached 
the  chiefs  of  the  army.  This 
defection  added. new  force  to 
the  uneasiness  and  discontent 
produced  by  the  resolution  of 
the  Emperor.  Now  was  seen 
what  had  never  been  witnessed 
before — his  entire  staff  unite 
to  entreat  him  to  abandon  his 
project  of  marching  on  Berlin, 
and  to  retire  in  the  direction 
of  Leipzig.  I  could  see  how 
the  soul  of  the  Emperor 
suffered  from  the  necessity  of 
even  listening  to  such  remon- 
strances. 

"  In  spite  of  the  respectful 
form  in  which  these  remon- 
strances were  made,  his  Majesty 
was   hurt,   and    for    two   days 

remained  in  indecision.  Oh,  how  long  those  forty-eight  hours  were !  Never 
was  bivouac  or  abandoned  cabin  so  dismal  as  the  dismal  castle  of  Diiben. 
In  this  lamentable  residence  I  saw  the  Emperor  for  the  first  time  wholly 
broken  down.  The  indecision  to  which  he  was  a  prey  had  so  absorbed 
him,  that  he  was  hardly  recognisable.  To  an  activity  which  thrust  him 
on,  and  devoured  him  incessantly,  succeeded  an  apparent  indifference,  of 
which  I  could  hardly  have  conceived  an  idea.  I  saw  him,  during  almost 
the  entire  day,  lying  on  a  sofa,  having  before  him  a  table  covered  with 
maps  and  papers,  which  he  did  not  look  at,  without  other  occupation  than 
scrawling  slowly  great  letters  on  blank  pieces  of  paper,  for  hours  together. 
His  mind  was  then  floating  between  his  own  purpose  and  that  urged 
on  him  by  his  generals.  After  two  days  of  the  most  painful  anxiety, 
he  gave  way.  Then  all  was  lost.  How  often  have  I  heard  him  after- 
wards  repeat  with   grief,   *  I   would   have   avoided   many  disasters,  if   I    had 


NAPOLEON   TAKING    A    PINCH   OF   SNUFF. 
From  a  lithograph  of  1838. 


458        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

followed  my  first  impulse.  I  failed  only  because  I  yielded  to  the  opinions 
of  others.' "  * 

Thus  did  his  galled  pride  still  attribute  disaster  to  others  rather  than  to 
himself  Yet  who  can  doubt  for  an  instant  that  the  prosecution  of  the  march  on 
Berlin  would  have  resulted  in  a  disaster  far  greater  than  that  of  Leipzig? 

The  order  for  retreat  was  given.  All  faces  lighted  up  when  it  was  heard. 
"  We  are  going  back  to  France,"  cried  the  soldiers.  "  We  shall  kiss  our  children 
and  our  wives  again." 

/On  the  1 6th  of  October,  began  the  great  battle  of  Leipzig,  which  the 
Germans  call  "  The  Battle  of  the  Nations,"  because  of  the  various  nationalities 
represented  in  it,  and  the  number  of  troops  engaged.  It  was  fought  on  the 
1 6th,  17th,  1 8th,  and  19th  of  October,  and  was  one  of  the  longest,  sternest,  and 
bloodiest  actions  of  the  war,  and  one  of  the  greatest  battles  recorded  in  history. 
Napoleon  was  led  to  engage  in  it  by  false  representations.  He  believed  that  he 
was  opposed  by  the  Bohemian  army  only,  which  was  not  larger  than  his  own. 
That  Bernadotte  would  take  no  part  in  it,  and  keep  at  a  distance,  with  the 
Northern  Army,  was  certain.  Bliicher,  he  believed,  was  too  distant  to  cause 
him  any  alarm,  whereas  he  was  actually  at  Mochern,  on  the  Halle  road,  await- 
ing the  arrival  of  Bernadotte. 

On  the  evening  of  the  i6th,  for  a  moment  victory  seemed  to  declare  for  the 
French,  and  Napoleon  shouted  exultingly :  "The  tide  is  turning!"  But  when 
darkness  settled  in,  he  felt  that  he  was  a  beaten  man  ;  yet  his  spirit  was  not 
broken. 

Next  day  only  desultory  fighting  ensued  ;  the  Emperor  saw  that  at  all  costs 
he  must  keep  clear  a  line  of  retreat,  and  he  ordered  the  road  to  Weissenfels  to 
be  held  open.     He  sent  to  the  Allies  to  propose  a  truce,  but  was  refused. 

On  the  1 8th,  the  battle  began  again  with  renewed  fury.  But  now  at  length 
the  Swedes  and  the  Northern  Army  came  up  from  Halle,  and  another  Austrian 
division  and  a  Russian  reinforcement  appeared  as  well  on  the  field. 

Napoleon  resolved  on  immediate  retreat,  and  concentrated  his  army  on  the 
south.  Then  the  Saxons  went  over  to  the  enemy,  followed  by  the  Wurtemberg 
cavalry.  Night  settled  down  once  more  on  the  bloody  field,  and  Napoleon 
spent  it  in  the  town,  into  which  he  had  withdrawn  all  but  the  outposts  of  his 
army,  and  prepared  to  break  away  for  France  on  the  morrow. 

The  19th  dawned,  and  with  the  gathering  light  the  Allies  advanced.  The 
cannon-balls  fell  in  showers  in  the  streets.  Napoleon  finding  that  all  was  lost, 
quitted  the  town  as  the  Allies  entered  it  on  the  other  side.  As  the  Emperor 
crossed  the  bridge,  he  ordered  it  to  be  blown  up.  This  was  done  regardless  of 
his  flying  army  which  was  crossing  it;  and  25,000  men  were  left  behind.  The 
retreat  was  conducted  in  tolerable  order,  harassed,  indeed,  and  obstructed  by 
the  Bavarians  at  Hanau.  On  the  9th  November,  Napoleon,  having  brought  the 
shattered  remains  of  his  army  to  Mayence,  left  for  Paris,  and  bade  a  final  adieu 

to  the  German  plains. 

*  Constant,  v.  268. 


XLIX 
THE    ABDICATION 

(9th  November,  181 3— 6th  April,  18 14) 

/^N  the  return  of  Napoleon  to  Paris,  the  Senate  approached  him  with 
^^  renewed  professions  of  devotion  to  his  person  and  dynasty,  and  affected 
to  regard  the  disaster  of  Leipzig  and  the  retreat  as  reparable  disasters,  and  as 
attributable  to  anything  rather  than  to  any  fault  in  Napoleon  the  Great.  On 
Sunday,  the  14th  of  November,  five  days  after  his  arrival  in  Paris,  they  appeared 
before  him  in  the  Tuileries,  with  an  address  of  felicitation  on  his  happy  return, 
un wounded.  But  the  Legislative  Body,  though  it  had  for  long  been  reduced  to 
a  condition  of  servility  almost  as  base  as  that  of  the  Senate,  did  nevertheless 
contain  in  it  men  of  better  stuff;  and  a  committee  having  drawn  up  and 
presented  a  report  on  the  condition  of  the  nation,  those  engaged  thereon  had 
not  shrunk  from  pointing  out  the  exhausted  state  of  the  country,  and  the 
practical  abrogation  of  the  laws  which  guaranteed  to  French  citizens  the  rights 
of  liberty,  property,  and  security,  and  the  free  exercise  of  their  Constitutional 
privileges.  The  Legislative  Body,  by  a  large  majority,  ordered  the  report  to  be 
printed. 

This  token  of  independence  exasperated  the  Emperor  to  the  highest  degree, 
and  he  immediately  ordered  the  suppression  of  the  report,  and  the  closing  of  the 
doors  of  the  Assembly,  which  he  declared  to  be  adjourned.  This  was  on  the 
last  day  of  181 3.  On  the  following  day,  there  was,  as  usual,  for  the  new  year, 
a  grand  Court  levee,  and  among  those  who  repaired  to  the  Tuileries  in  their 
embroidered  coats,  to  salute  the  Emperor,  was  a  deputation  of  the  Legislative 
Body.  Napoleon  at  once  attacked  them  in  a  coarse  speech,  accompanied  by 
menacing  gestures,  in  the  midst  of  an  awestruck  circle  of  courtiers : — 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  you  might  have  done  a  great  deal  of  good,  but  you 
have  done  nothing  but  mischief.  I  have  suppressed  your  address ;  it  was 
incendiary.  Eleven-twelfths  of  you  are  well-intentioned,  the  others,  and  above 
all  M.  Laine,  are  factious  intriguers,  devoted  to  England,  to  all  my  enemies,  and 
corresponding  with  the  Bourbons.  You  make  remonstrances.  Is  this  a  time, 
when  the  stranger  invades  our  provinces  ?  There  may  have  been  petty  abuses  ; 
I  never  connived  at  them.  You,  M.  Raynouard,  said  that  Prince  Massena  robbed 
a  man  at  Marseilles  of  his  house.  You  lie !  Why  did  you  not  make  your 
complaints  in  private  to  me  ?  We  should  wash  our  dirty  linen  at  home,  and  not 
drag  it  out  before  the  world.     You  call  yourselves  the  Representatives  of  the 

459 


I 


46o        THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Nation.  It  is  not  true ;  you  are  only  Deputies  of  Departments.  I  alone  am 
the  Representative  of  the  People.  Twice  have  27,000,000  French  called  me  to 
the  throne.  It  had  already  crushed  your  Assemblies,  and  your  Conventions, 
your  Jacobins,  and  your  Girondins.  They  are  all  dead  !  What,  who  are  you  ? 
Nothing.  All  authority  is  in  the  Throne.  What  is  it?  This  wooden  frame 
covered  with  velvet  ?  No !  I  am  the  Throne.  You  advise !  how  dare  you 
debate  on  matters  of  such  grave  import?  You  have  put  me  forward  as  the 
cause  of  war — it  is  an  outrage.  M.  Laine  is  a  traitor ;  he  is  a  wicked  man,  the 
rest  are  mere  intriguers.  Go  back  to  your  Departments.  If  any  one  of  you 
dare  to  print  your  address,  I  shall  publish  it  in  the  Mofiiteur  with  my  own  notes. 
Go  :  France  stands  more  in  need  of  me,  than  I  of  France." 

There  are  various  versions  of  this  furious  speech.  It  circulated  through 
Paris,  it  was  commented  on,  it  produced  general  indignation.  It  spread  beyond 
France,  it  was  published  throughout  Europe,  though  not  printed  in  the  official 
Moniteur,  and  the  expressions  in  it  were  perhaps  aggravated  by  interested 
persons.  But  the  Legislative  Body  was  the  organ  of  the  nation,  and  it  spoke 
for  the  people.  Napoleon's  defiance  of  it  was  accepted  as  a  manifesto  of  his 
arbitrary  will  against  the  nation,  and  the  nation  resented  it. 

The  Senate  had  voted  a  new  conscription  of  300,000  men,  including 
all  who  had  escaped  the  conscriptions  of  former  years,  and  the  taxes  were 
doubled. 

But  the  land  was  drained  of  blood  and  money.  Everywhere  the  women 
were  in  mourning ;  their  husbands  and  sons  had  been  sacrificed  on  the  snowy 
plains  of  Russia,  on  the  burning  plateaus  of  New  Castille,  or  in  the  butchery 
of  Leipzig.  P'ormerly  they  had  said,  "  Our  children  died  on  the  fields  of  victory 
for  the  glory  of  France."  Now  they  moaned,  "  Our  brothers,  our  children,  our 
substance,  are  sacrificed  to  the  ambition  of  a  tyrant ! " 

It  was  not  till  the  8th  January,  1814,  that  the  desperate  Emperor  could  be 
induced  to  think  of  reorganising  the  National  Guard  of  Paris  ;  and  even  then 
he  took  precautions  to  exclude  the  men  of  the  faubourgs,  and  all  the  poorer 
classes.  According  to  the  imperial  purpose,  it  was  to  be  30,000  strong,  but  was 
formed  only  of  such  men  as  were  believed  to  be  the  friends  of  order,  that  is  to 
say,  of  the  Empire ;  and  yet,  to  complete  that  number,  many  were  taken  in 
who  were  doubtful  adherents,  and  officers  were  nominated  who  were  suspected 
Royalists. 

Of  his  old  army.  Napoleon  had  upon  the  Rhine  no  more  than  seventy  or 
eighty  thousand  men  to  oppose  to  the  Allies  advancing  upon  the  frontier  with 
160,000  men,  and  with  reinforcements  hurrying  up  from  Austria,  Russia,  and 
every  part  of  Germany.  From  Italy  not  a  man  nor  a  musket  could  be  drawn, 
for  Murat  had  joined  the  Allies,  and,  supported  by  an  Austrian  army,  was  over- 
powering Eugene  Beauharnais.  No  assistance  was  to  be  reckoned  on  from  any 
other  part  of  Europe.  Bernadotte  had  overthrown  the  Danes,  the  last  ally  on 
whom  Napoleon  could  count.  In  the  south,  Wellington  was  driving  Soult 
before  him.  Bonaparte  had  said  that,  rather  than  give  up  Holland,  he  would 
sink  it  under  the  sea.  But  Holland  had  risen,  shaken  off  the  yoke  of  the 
detested   French,  and  had  summoned  the    Prince   of    Orange   to   the  crown. 


THE   ABDICATION 


461 


Switzerland  was  powerless  to  rise,  but  it  readily  allowed  the  Allies  to  traverse 
its  territory  on  their  way  into  France. 

The  defection  of  Murat  overthrew  one  of  Bonaparte's  splendid  conceptions. 
He  had  planned  that,  whilst  he  occupied  the  invaders,  disputing  every  inch  of 
French  soil,  Eugene  Beauharnais,  Viceroy  of  Italy,  and  Murat,  King  of  Naples, 
should  combine  their  forces,  and  strike  over  the  Alps  at  Vienna,  and  thus 
paralyse  Austria  by  a  blow  at  the  heart. 

Amidst  the  difficulties 
which  assailed  him,  the 
Emperor  turned  his  eyes  on 
Talleyrand.  Madame  Junot 
gives  an  amusing  account  of 
an  interview  between  Na- 
poleon, grown  irritable  and 
half  mad  with  disappoint- 
ment, and  the  adroit,  passion- 
less minister.  Joseph  had 
abandoned  Spain,  and  re- 
signed the  crown  ;  now,  when 
too  late,  Napoleon  entered 
into  a  convention  with  Ferdi- 
nand for  his  restoration. 

"  It  would  appear  that, 
the  Emperor  was  not  at  the 
time  very  well  acquainted 
with  the  style  of  conversation 
which  was  maintained  in  the 
coterie  of  M.  de  Talleyrand, 
when  the  affairs  of  Spain 
came  under  discussion.  'Well, 
Monsieur,'  said  the  Emperor 
walking  straight  up  to  him, 
'  I  think  it  somewhat  strange 
that  you  should  allege  I  made 
you  the  gaoler  of  Ferdinand, 
when  you  yourself  made  the 
proposition  to  me.'  Talleyrand 
assumed  one  of  his  inflexible  looks — half  closing  his  little  eyes,  and  screwing 
up  his  lips,  he  stood  with  one  hand  resting  on  the  back  of  a  chair,  and 
the  other  in  his  waistcoat -pocket.  Nothing  increases  anger  so  much  as 
coolness.  The  Emperor  was  violently  irritated  at  Talleyrand's  immovability 
of  countenance  and  coolness  of  manner,  and  he  exclaimed,  in  a  voice  of 
thunder,  stamping  his  foot,  'Why  do  you  not  answer  me?'  The  same 
silence  was  maintained.  Napoleon's  eyes  flashed  fire.  Talleyrand  became 
alarmed,  not  without  reason,  and  then  he  stammered  out  the  following 
words,  which  were  certainly  anything  but  satisfactory :  '  I  am  at  a  loss 
to  understand  what  your  Majesty  means.'  Napoleon  attempted  to  speak,, 
but  rage  choked  his  utterance.  He  advanced,  first  one  step,  then  a  second, 
then   a  third,  until  he  came  close  up  to  the  Prince  of  Benevento.     He   then 


NAPOLEON    AT   THE   TIME   OF   THE    INVASION    BY   THE   ALLIES. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


46^2        THE    LIFE   OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

raised  his  hand  to  the  height  of  the  Prince's  chin,  and,  continuing  to  advance, 
he  forced  Talleyrand  to  recede,  which  was  no  easy  matter,  owing  to  the  defect 
in  one  of  his  feet.  However,  it  was  more  advisable  to  recede  than  advance,  for 
the  Emperor's  little  ha'nd  was  still  raised,  and  was  clenched  in  the  form  necessary 
for  giving  what  is  vulgarly  called  a  coup  de  poing.  However,  it  was  not  given. 
The  Emperor  merely  drove  the  Prince  of  Benevento,  half  walking,  half 
hobbling,  along  the  whole  length  of  the  large  cabinet  of  the  Pavilion  of  Flora. 
At  length  the  Prince  reached  the  wall  of  the  apartment,  and  Napoleon  repeated, 
*  So  you  presume  to  say  that  you  did  not  advise  the  captivity  of  the  princes?' 
Here  the  scene  ended.  On  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  this  scene  was 
acted  the  Prince  of  Benevento  had  company.  The  chamberlain  on  duty  at  the 
Tuileries  had  overheard  everything,  and  had  repeated  it,  with  the  addition  that 
the  Prince  had  received  a  coup  de  poing  from  the  Emperor.  At  a  party  that 
same  evening,  one  of  his  visitors,  who  was  on  familiar  terms  with  the  Prince, 
stepped  up  to  him,  saying,  'Ah!  Monseigneur,  what  have  I  heard?'  'What?' 
inquired  Talleyrand,  with  one  of  his  cool,  impenetrable  looks.     '  I  have  been 

informed  that  the  Emperor  treated  you  to '     '  Oh  ! '  interrupted  the  Prince, 

^  that  is  a  thing  that  happens  every  day — every  day.'  The  Prince  had  heard  no 
mention  of  the  coup  de  poing,  and  flattered  himself  that  nobody  knew  ;  and 
when  he  said  '  every  day,'  he  merely  meant  that  the  Emperor  was  every  day  out 
of  temper  and  unreasonable."  "^ 

The  Allies,  having  learned  of  the  immense  levies  of  troops  which  Napoleon 
was  making,  and  being  well  aware  of  the  impatience  of  the  nation  at  the 
burdens  imposed  on  it,  issued  a  proclamation  addressed  to  the  French  people, 
assuring  them  that  it  was  their  desire  to  see  France  great,  strong,  and  happy, 
and  that  they  had  no  intention  of  interfering  with  what  form  of  government 
they  chose  to  adopt,  but  that  they  were  firmly  resolved  to  repress  the  ambition 
of  Napoleon,  which  was  covering  Europe  with  ruins,  and  converting  it  into  a 
charnel-house.  The  proclamation  was  widely  circulated,  and  produced  a  great 
effect,  for  it  led  the  people  to  regard  the  Emperor  as  the  sole  obstacle  to  that 
peace  which  they  so  ardently  desired,  and  to  attain  which  he  had  assured  them 
he  had  engaged  in  all  his  wars. 

To  gain  time  was  Napoleon's  great  desire.  He  was  fully  aware  of  the  half- 
heartedness  with  which  his  father-in-law  had  entered  into  the  alliance.  The 
Emperor  of  Russia  and  the  King  of  Prussia,  together  with  England,  which 
furnished  the  sinews  of  war,  were  intent  on  making  Napoleon  powerless  to  do 
more  mischief;  but  the  Emperor  of  Austria  had  no  desire  to  see  Napoleon 
dethroned,  nor  France  humiliated.  He  aimed  at  recovering  his  losses  in  Italy  ; 
and  if  he  could  obtain  these  from  Napoleon,  he  was  prepared  to  dissolve  his 
alliance  with  the  other  Sovereigns.  Unhappily,  the  Grand  Army  which  invaded 
France  was  placed  under  the  command  of  Prince  Schwarzenberg,  with  gout  in 
his  feet,  and  stupidity  in  his  brain,  and  further  hampered  by  the  instructions  of 
his  master  not  to  press  Napoleon  too  hard.  Bonaparte  was  fully  alive  to  the 
stupidity,  timidity,  and  hesitation  of  the  Austrian  generals.  The  Czar  Alexander 
was  driven  almost  frantic  by  their  hesitation  and  inertness,  and  more  than  once 
threatened  to  detach  his  Russians  from  them,  and  carry  on  the  war  alone  with 
Bliicher  and  the  Prussians. 

*  Memoirs  J  iii.  376. 


THE   ABDICATION 


463 


Bliicher,  who  commanded  the  Army  of  Silesia,  which  crossed  the  Rhine  below 
Mayence,  and  made  for  the  valley  of  the  Maine,  was  as  incautious  and  precipi- 
tate as  Schwarzenberg  was  provident  and  slow.  He  ran  like  a  hare,  whilst  the 
Austrian  crawled  like  a  snail. 

A  Congress  was  appointed  to  meet  at  Chatillon,  to  which  Napoleon  sent 
Caulaincourt,  with  private  instructions  to  sign  no  agreement,  to  create  difficulties, 
and  to  sow  dissension  among  the  members  of  the  Coalition.  "  Only  detach 
Austria,"  said  Bonaparte,  "  and  all  will  yet  be  saved." 


I 

tt                      wWgK^^K^gg^mg^^^^^J  f               ''  %^:M'19p            '^^P^^ 

1 
1 

1-    . 

NAPOLEON    IN    A    COTTAGE. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Bellang^. 


He  endeavoured  to  obtain  an  armistice  whilst  the  Convention  was  sitting 
but  this  was  refused. 

Caulaincourt  could  not  fail  to  see  that  the  incessant  evasion  to  which  he  was 
driven  was  producing  a  bad  effect,  and  that  in  the  meantime  the  chances  of 
gaining  favourable  terms  were  lessening.  But  nothing  could  induce  Napoleon 
to  yield.  Maret,  Duke  of  Bassano,  was  with  him,  and  he  also  saw  that  the  mad- 
ness of  the  Emperor  was  menacing  France  with  ruin. 

After  Leipzig,  terms  of  peace  had  been  offered  Napoleon,  giving  him  as  frontiers 
the  Pyrenees,  Switzerland,  and  the  Rhine  to  the  sea,  also  Nice  and  Savoy;  and  this 
had  been  haughtily  rejected.     Very  different  terms  were  now  offered  ;  and  the 


464        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

alteration  is  a  good  gauge  of  the  steady  decline  of  Napoleon's  star  from  1812 — 
a  decline  often  lost  sight  of,  owing  to  his  brilliant  campaign  in  18 14,  and  his 
comet-like  reappearance  in  18 15. 

Schwarzenberg,  at  the  head  of  the  Grand  Army,  entered  France  by  passing 
over  the  Rhine  at  Basel,  and  traversing  the  Jura,  with  intention  to  effect  a  junc- 
tion with  the  army  of  Silesia,  under  Bliicher,  on  the  plateau  of  Langres,  about 
the  26th  January,  18 14. 

On  the  23rd  January— not  before — did  the  Emperor  take  leave  of  the 
National  Guard,  previous  to  his  departure  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
army. 

At  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  January  25th,  Napoleon  embraced  his 
wife  and  son  for  the  last  time,  and  set  out  for  the  army.  He  never  saw  either 
again. 

The  headquarters  of  the  army  were  at  Chalons-sur-Marne.  The  Grand 
Army,  under  Schwarzenberg,  had  already  crept  through  Burgundy  into  Cham- 
pagne, and  was  threatening  Troyes.  Bliicher  had  traversed  Lorraine,  leaving 
20,000  men  on  the  Meuse  at  S.  Michel,  and  had  pushed  forward  with  26,000 
men  to  Brienne,  without  any  communication  between  them.  Napoleon  at  once 
saw  the  folly  committed  by  the  Prussians,  and  by  a  rapid  march  established 
himself  at  S.  Dizier,  between  Bliicher  and  the  Meuse.  He  accordingly  had  it 
in  his  power  to  fling  himself  on  the  body  commanded  by  Yorck  at  S.  Michel,, 
and  annihilate  it,  or  to  grapple  with  Bliicher  at  Brienne,  and  drive  him  back  on 
the  Grand  Army.  He  resolved  to  attack  Bliicher,  who  was  wholly  unaware  of 
the  presence  of  the  enemy,  and  that  his  Silesian  army  was  cut  in  two. 

Bliicher,  taken  by  surprise  at  Brienne,  was  defeated  on  January  29th.  Brienne^ 
where  Napoleon  had  been  a  pupil  in  the  military  college,  w,as  taken,  set  on  fire, 
and  his  old  school  was  consumed  in  the  flames.  But  this  first  surprise  led  to  the 
concentration  of  the  Army  of  Silesia  and  the  Grand  Army,  under  Schwarzen- 
berg, and  again  the  battle  raged  at  La  Rothiere,  near  Brienne,  and  on  this 
occasion  (February  ist)  Napoleon  was  defeated,  and  forced  to  retreat.  Had 
the  dull  and  dawdling  Austrian  general  at  once  pursued  his  success,  the  result  to 
Napoleon  would  have  been  disastrous  in  the  extreme.  The  war  would  have 
been  terminated  at  one  stroke.  But  his  incapacity,  or  perhaps  the  reluctance  of 
Francis  to  allow  advantage  to  be  taken  of  this  victory,  led  to  a  prolongation  of 
the  struggle,  and  to  the  shedding  of  more  blood. 

Not  only  did  the  Allies  not  do  what  ought  to  have  been  done,  but  they 
ingeniously  did  precisely  what  they  ought  not  to  have  done.  On  February  2nd,, 
they  dislocated  the  Allied  Armies,  and  the  order  was  given  that  the  Army  of 
Silesia  should  move  on  Chalons,  and  thence  follow  the  course  of  the  Marne  to- 
Paris,  whereas  the  Grand  Army  was  to  descend  the  valley  of  the  Seine  by 
Montereau,  to  the  same  capital. 

Napoleon  immediately  saw  his  advantage.  Disdaining  Schwarzenberg,  whom- 
he  could  knock  to  pieces  at  his  leisure,  he  determined  to  measure  swords  with 
an  adversary  more  worthy  of  his  regard ;  and  he  at  once,  by  a  brilliant  cross- 
march,   fell   upon   the    Army   of  Silesia,   when,   with  Bliicher's   characteristic 


THE    ABDICATION  465 

carelessness,  that  army  was  resolved  into  three  detachments  at  Champaubert, 
Montmirail,  and  Vauchamps.  Bonaparte  succeeded  in  defeating  the  enemy  on 
the  loth,  nth,  and  14th  of  February  ;  and  he  would  have  annihilated  the  Army 
of  Silesi^,  but  for  the  great  coolness  of  the  Russian  and  Prussian  soldiers,  their 
admirable  discipline,  and  their  orderly  method  of  retreat. 

Having  now  defeated  one  host,  and  that  under  the  only  general  with  ability, 
Napoleon,  having  the  interior  position,  swung  round  as  on  a  pivot,  and  hastened 
to  strike  at  the  lumbering  Grand  Army  under  Schwarzenberg.  The  encounter 
took  place  at  Montereau,  on  February  i8th,  and  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  the 
Allies,  and  their  retreat  to  Sens. 

The  exultation  of  Napoleon  was  now  at  its  height.  He  had  executed 
movements  of  extraordinary  brilliancy,  unsurpassed  in  any  of  his  previous 
campaigns  ;  he  had  defeated  and  driven  back  two  large  armies ;  and  he-  was 
confident  that  again  his  star  was  in  the  ascendant. 

Meanwhile,  at  Chatillon,  Caulaincourt  was  evading  every  proposal  made  for 
a  termination  of  the  war,  and  presenting  counter  suggestions  to  protract  the 
negotiations.  In  vain  did  he  appeal  to  the  Emperor  to  give  him  full  powers  to 
conclude  terms.  These  Napoleon  would  not  grant.  On  the  eve  of  the  battle  of 
Champaubert,  Maret  had  drawn  out  instructions,  empowering  Caulaincourt  to 
accept  the  terms  of  the  Allies,  and  conclude  peace,  and  these  he  presented 
to  Napoleon  to  sign  ;  but  the  Emperor  could  not  be  induced  to  do  this. 

"  I  will  sign  to-morrow,"  said  Napoleon.  "If  I  be  killed,  they  will  not  be 
wanted  ;  if  I  conquer,  we  shall  be  able  to  treat  with  better  advantage." 

After  the  victory,  Maret  went  to  him,  and  again  presented  the  powers  for 
Caulaincourt,  but  the  Emperor  refused  even  to  look  at  them.  That  day  he  was 
even  more  successful  at  Montmirail,  and  in  the  evening  Maret  aeain  ursfed  the 
Emperor  to  sign.  But  visions  of  success  had  filled  Napoleon's  brain.  He 
smiled,  and,  looking  at  the  maps  of  France  and  Europe  which  lay  before  him, 
answered,  "  I  now  stand  in  such  a  situation,  that  I  need  not  yield  an  inch  of 
ground.     I  will  sign  nothing."  * 

Bliicher  was  in  retreat  on  Soissons  and  Laon,  to  meet  reinforcements  detached 
from  the  army  of  the  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden  (Bernadotte),  sent  to  his  aid,  for 
Bernadotte  himself  shrank  from  invading  his  native  land. 

Napoleon  pursued  him,  and  caught  him  up  as  he  was  in  a  most  precarious 
condition  on  the  Aisne,  where  he  would  have  cut  him  to  pieces,  but  for  the 
opportune  and  unexpected  surrender  of  the  French  garrison  in  Soissons. 
Bliicher  was  thus  enabled  to  cross  the  river,  and  make  good  his  retreat  to 
Laon,  but  not  without  having  first  fought  and  lost  a  hardly-contested  battle  at 
Craon. 

There  was  some  reason  for  exultation  in  Napoleon,  when  he  saw  the  Grand 
Army,  numbering  140,000  men,  retreating  ignominiously  before  his  60,000,  and 
even  falling  back  beyond  Troyes,  which  was  reoccupied  on  February  23rd. 

Despondency  had  come  on  the  Allies.  The  hesitation  of  Francis  was  at  its 
height,  when  Lord  Castlereagh,  the  representative  of  England,  interfered,  and 

*    BOURRIENNE,  iii.   380. 
2    H 


466        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

by  his  firmness  succeeded  in  infusing  a  little  energy  into  the  timorous  minds  of 
the  Kaiser  and  his  advisers.  Alexander  of  Russia  had  all  along  been  an 
advocate  for  bold  measures  ;  but,  without  the  support  of  the  English  represen- 
tative, the  invasion  would  probably  have  ended  in  a  fiasco,  or  in  the  complete 
separation  of  the  Austrians  from  the  other  Allies,  and  their  retirement  from  the 
conflict. 

On  March  ist,  a  treaty  was  drawn  up  and  signed  at  Chaumont,  by  which 
it  was  stipulated  that,  in  the  event  of  Napoleon  refusing  the  terms  offered  him 
— the  reduction  of  France  to  the  limits  of  the  old  Monarchy,  as  they  stood 
prior  to  the  Revolution — the  four  Allied  Powers  would  each  maintain  a  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  men  in  the  field,  and  that,  to  provide  for  their  maintenance. 
Great  Britain  would  furnish  an  annual  subsidy  of  five  millions  sterling. 

The  Congress  of  Chatillon  continued  to  sit ;  but,  flushed  with  successes, 
Napoleon  would  not  listen  to  any  terms  that  were  offered. 

The  Grand  Army  again  began  to  creep  forward.  It  met  with  some 
successes  at  Bar-sur-Aube  and  La  Guillotiere,  driving  the  French  before  them  ; 
and  then,  resting  from  its  exertions,  allowed  the  enemy  to  recover  himself.  On 
March  4th,  Troyes  was  retaken — but  at  this  time  Napoleon  was  pursuing 
Bliicher. 

On  March  i8th,  as  it  was  impossible  to  induce  the  Emperor  to  accept  the 
terms  decided  on  by  the  Allies,  the  negotiations  at  Chatillon  were  brought  to 
an  end. 

On  the  20th,  a  hardly-contested  fight  took  place  at  Arcis-sur-Aube,  which 
was  a  drawn  action  ;  and,  according  to  all  precedent,  the  Allies  should  have 
retreated  after  it.  .But  a  change  had  come  over  the  Austrians  with  the  con- 
viction that  negotiation  with  Napoleon  was  impracticable  ;  and  on  the  morning 
after  the  fight,  the  Emperor,  to  his  dismay,  saw  the  Allied  troops  still  in 
position. 

It  was  now  that  Napoleon  played  his  last  card,  in  attempting  to  throw 
himself  on  the  rear  of  the  Allied  Army,  with  resolve  to  abandon  Paris  to  its 
fate.  He  calculated  on  the  incompetence  and  timidity  of  the  Austrian  generals, 
and  he  hoped,  by  cutting  their  communications,  to  reduce  them  to  great  straits. 
No  sooner,  however,  was  his  .plan  understood  by  his  generals  and  the  army, 
than  consternation  became  rife.  The  idea  of  abandoning  Paris  to  its  fate  was 
to  them  a  sacrilege  ;  it  was  a  counsel  of  despair,  and  all  they  saw  before  them 
was  a  plunge  into  protracted,  aimless  warfare.  A  mutiny  was  threatened,  even 
at  headquarters  ;  the  obstinacy  with  which  he  had  refused  the  terms  offered  by 
the  Allies  was  universally  condemned,  and  many  doubted  the  sanity  of  the 
Emperor. 

The  Allies  soon  became  aware  of  the  position  of  Napoleon,  and  of  his  in- 
tentions. They  resolved  to  detach  a  body  of  cavalry  to  mask  their  movements, 
and  observe  him  ;  and  to  prosecute  the  march  with  all  rapidity  on  Paris. 
Napoleon  had  sent  General  Maison,  whose  talents  inspired  him  with  confidence, 
into  the  north,  to  collect  an  army  out  of  the  garrisons  there  stationed  ;  then, 
having  misled   the  enemy,  he  had  reached  S.  Dizier,  and   there  he  purposed 


THE   ABDICATION 


469 


turning  to  the  right,  picking  up  the  reinforcements  sent  him  by  Maison,  caUing 
forth  a  levy  of  all  the  people,  bringing  up  Augereau  from  Lyons,  and  all  the 
garrisons  from  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  Then,  with  this  great  army,  his  purpose 
was  to  fall  on  the  rear  of  the  Allies,  whilst  they  were  engaged  with  Marmont 
and  Mortier,  who  were  defending  Paris.  The  result  of  the  movement,  if  carried 
out,  would  have  been  the  destruction  or  capture  of  the  entire  army  of  the 
Allies  with  the  Sovereigns  at  its  head.  But  for  the  success  of  this  daring 
scheme  it  was  essential  that  Paris  should  hold  out  a  sufficient  time,  and  be 


*    C  EST    LUI  !         NAPOLEON    IN   A    PEASANTS    HOUSE    ASLEEP. 
From  a  painting  by  F.  Flameng. 

covered  by  an  army  large  enough  to  stay  the  march  of  the  enemy.  Neither 
of  these  conditions  existed.  Marmont  and  Mortier  made  faint  attempts  to 
maintain  the  heights  in  front  of  Paris,  but  they  had  only  20,000  men  at  their 
command.  The  Empress  Regent  fled  to  Blois,  and  on  the  30th  March 
Joseph  Bonaparte,  ex-King  of  Spain,  who  was  the  Emperor's  lieutenant,  and 
Commander-in-Chief  of.  the  National  Guard,  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  He 
had  been  accustomed  to  use  his  legs  in  Spain,  and  he  had.  fled  after  the 
Empress  Regent.  Marshals  Mortier  and  Marmont  now  asked  for  an  armistice, 
and  this  led  to  the  capitulation  of  Paris.  On  the  31st,  the  Emperor  Alexander 
and  the  King  of  Prussia  entered  the  capital  of  France,  amidst  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  Parisians,  a  waving  of  white  handkerchiefs,  and  a  shouting  of 
"  Vivent  les  A  Hies  !    Vivent  les  Bourbons  !'' 


470 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


When  Napoleon  heard  of  the  rapid  march  on  Paris,  he  came  flying  back  to 
the  rehef  of  the  capital.  But  he  came  too  late  ;  Paris  was  already  in  the  un- 
disturbed possession  of  the  Allies.  At  Fontainebleau  he  met  the  columns  of 
the  garrison  which  had  evacuated  Paris.  He  affected  great  indignation  against 
Marmont ;  but  no  man  in  his  senses  thought  that  Marmont,  with  his  diminu- 
tive force,  and  with  no  popular  support,  could  have  done  more  than  he  had 
done.     Several  of  his  marshals  now  came  to  him,  and  told  him  the  unpalatable 


AN    INCIDENT   OF   THE   CAMPAIGN. 
napoleon's  silhouette,  when  asleep,  sketched  on  the  wall  by  a  post-boy. 


From  a  lithograph  by  Bellang^. 


truth,  that  he  ought  to  abdicate.     He  hurried  into  the  gloomy  old  palace  of 
Fontainebleau,  and  shut  himself  up  to  his  maddening  reflections. 

"  I  can  hardly  paint  the  gloomy  sadness  and  silence  that  reigned  at 
Fontainebleau  during  the  next  two  days,"  says  Constant.  ''  Bowed  under  so 
many  blows,  the  Emperor  went  very  little  into  his  study,  where  he  usually 
passed  so  many  hours  at  work.  He  was  so  absorbed  in  his  thoughts,  that  often 
he  did  not  perceive  there  were  any  persons  near  him.  He  looked  at  them 
without  seeing  them,  and  remained  for  half  an  hour  without  saying  a  word  to 
them.  Then,  as  one  awaking  out  of  a  state  of  stupefaction,  he  addressed  them 
a  question,  and  seemed  not  to  listen  for  an  answer.     The  presence  of  the  Duke 


THE   ABDICATION 


471 


of  Bassano  (Maret)  and  of  the  Duke  of  Vicenza  (Caulaincourt),  whom  he 
repeatedly  asked  for,  did  not  break  this  preoccupation,  which  was,  so  to  speak, 
lethargic.  Meal-times  passed  in  the  same  manner :  no  sound  interrupted  the 
silence  save  that  inevitably  attached  to  the  service.  At  the  Emperor's  toilette, 
the  same  silence :  not  a  word  escaped  his  lips,  and  if  I  proposed  to  him  in  the 
morning  one  of  his  usual  potions,  I  not  only  received  no  answer,  but  nothing 
in  his  face  betokened  that  he  had  heard  me.  This  situation  was  literally 
horrible  to  all  who  were  attached  to  his  Majesty.  Was  the  Emperor  really 
conquered  by  his  misfortunes?     Was  his  genius  as  stupefied  as  his  body?     I 


DRIVEN    DESPERATE. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffel. 


must  say  frankly  that  seeing  him  now  so  different  from  what  he  was  after  the 
disasters  of  Moscow,  and  even  as  he  had  been  a  few  days  before  at  Troyes, 
I  believed  it  was  so.  But  it  was  not.  His  mind  was  occupied  with  one  fixed 
idea,  the  idea  of  resuming  the  offensive,  and  of  marching  on  Paris.  Indeed, 
although  he  seemed  dumbfoundered  in  the  intimacy  of  his  most  faithful 
ministers  and  most  skilful  generals,  he  nerved  at  once  when  he  saw  his  soldiers, 
believing  that  the  former  would  urge  counsels  of  prudence,  whereas  the  others 
would  answer  only  with  cries  of '  Vive  I'Empereur !'  to  whatever  he  commanded 
them,  however  reckless  his  orders  might  be.  And  already,  on  the  2nd  April, 
he  began  to  shake  off  this  depression  whilst  passing  in  review  the  Guard  in  the 
court  of  the  palace.     He  spoke  then  in  firm  tones  to  them  : — 

" '  Soldiers  !  the  enemy  has  forestalled  us  by  three  marches,  and   has   got 


472 


THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


possession  of  Paris.  We  must  drive  them  thence.  Unworthy  Frenchmen, 
emigrants  that  I  had  pardoned,  have  put  on  the  white  cockade,  and  have  joined 
the  enemy.  Cowards  !  They  shall  be  repaid  their  treachery.  Let  us  swear  to 
conquer  or  to  die,  and  to  make  the  tricolor  cockade  respected,  which  for  twenty 
years  has  led  along  the  road  of  glory  and  honour.' 

"  The  enthusiasm  of  the  troops  was  extreme  at  the  voice  of  their  chief.  All 
cried  out,  '  Paris  !  Paris  ! '  But  the  Emperor  fell  back  into  depression  on  passing 
the  threshold  of  the  palace.  This  was  caused  by  the  well-founded  fear  that  his 
immense  longing  to  march  on  Paris  would  be  combated  by  his  lieutenants. 
However,  affairs  became  more  and  more  opposed  to  his  projects.  The  Duke  of 
Vicenza,  whom  he  had  sent  to  Paris,  where  was  formed  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment under  the  Presidency  of  the  Prince  of  Benevento,  retm-ned  without  having 


THE   ABDICATION. 
A  caricature  by  G.  Cruikshank. 

succeeded  with  his  mission  to  the  Emperor  Alexander,  and  every  day  brought  in 
news  of  fresh  defections  among  his  marshals  and  a  great  number  of  his  generals. 
That  of  the  Prince  of  Neufchatel  (Berthier)  was  what  touched  him  most  keenly."* 

Napoleon  had  round  him  at  Fontainebleau  about  seven  thousand  men. 
Macdonald  with  the  rest  of  his  army,  about  25,000  strong,  was  at  Montereau. 
The  Emperor  sent  orders  that  they  should  be  pushed  forward  for  the  march 
against  Paris.  On  receiving  this  order,  Macdonald  hastened  to  Fontainebleau. 
When  he  arrived  there,  he  heard  that  the  Emperor  had  already  announced  his 
intention  to  the  generals  in  command  of  the  corps  there  assembled.  Macdonald 
at  once  entered  the  palace  ;  'what  ensued  is  told  by  Bourrienne,  who  received 
the  particulars  from  the  Marshal  himself: — 

As  soon  as  Macdonald  entered  the  apartment,  Napoleon  stepped  up  to  him 

'     '  Very  badly,  Sire.'     'How,  badly? 

Constant,  vi.  71. 


and  said,  '  Well,  how  are  things  going  on  ? 


THE   ABDICATION  473 

What  are  the  feelings  of  your  army  ? '  '  My  army,  Sire,  is  entirely  discouraged, 
appalled  by  the  fate  of  Paris.'  '  Will  not  your  troops  join  me  in  an  advance  on 
Paris  ? '  '  Sire,  do  not  think  of  such  a  thing.  If  I  were  to  give  such  an  order, 
I  should  run  the  risk  of  being  disobeyed.'  '  But  what  is  to  be  done?  I  cannot 
remain  as  I  am.  I  have  yet  resources  and  partisans.  I  will  march  on  Paris.  I 
will  be  avenged  on  the  inconstancy  of  the  Parisians  and  the  baseness  of  the 
Senate.  Woe  to  the  members  of  the  Government,  that  have  schemed  for  the 
return  of  the  Bourbons.  To-morrow  I  shall  place  myself  at  the  head  of  my 
Guards,  and  the  day  after  we  shall  be  in  the  Tuileries.' 

"  The  Marshal  listened  in  silence  ;  and  when  at  length  Napoleon  became 
somewhat  calm,  he  observed,  '  Sire,  it  appears,  then,  that  you  are  not  aware  of 
what  has  taken  place  in  Paris — of  the  establishment  of  a  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, and '     '  I  know  it  all ;  and  what  then  ? '     '  Sire,'  added  the  Marshal, 

presenting  a  paper  to  Napoleon,  '  here  is  something  which  will  tell  you  more 
than  I  can.'  Macdonald  then  presented  to  him  a  letter  from  General  Beuron- 
ville,  announcing  the  forfeiture  of  the  Emperor  pronounced  by  the  Senate,  and 
the  determination  of  the  Allied  Powers  not  to  treat  with  Napoleon,  or  any 
member  of  his  family.  When  the  reading  of  Beuronville's  letter  was  ended, 
the  Emperor  affected  to  persist  in  his  intention  of  marching  on  Paris.  '  Sire,' 
exclaimed  Macdonald,  '  that  plan  must  be  renounced.  Not  a  sword  would  be 
unsheathed  to  second  you  in  such  an  enterprise.'"* 

Berthier  had  been  with  the  Emperor  at  Fontainebleau  ;  but  seeing  how 
things  were  marching,  he  invented  some  excuse  for  leaving  him.  He  pretended 
that  his  presence  was  required  in  Paris,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  some  com- 
promising papers. 

Whilst  he  spoke,  Napoleon  looked  at  him  steadily,  and  with  a  shade  of 
melancholy  in  his  face. 

"  Berthier,"  said  he,  taking  his  hand,  "you  see  that  I  have  need  of  consola- 
tion, and  how  much  I  require  at  this  moment  to  be  surrounded  by  my  true 
friends."  Berthier  made  no  reply.  Napoleon  continued  :  "  You  will  be  back  to- 
morrow?"   "  Certainly,  Sire,"  replied  the  Prince  of  Neufchatel,  and  left  the  room. 

After  his  departure,  Napoleon  remained  for  some  time  silent.  He  followed 
him  with  his  eyes,  and  when  Berthier  was  out  of  sight,  he  cast  them  on  the 
ground  and  sighed.  At  length  he  advanced  to  Maret,  and  laying  his  hand  on 
his  arm,  pressed  it  and  said,  "  He  will  not  come  back."  He  then  threw  himself 
dejectedly  into  a  chair.     He  was  right.     Berthier  had  deserted  him. 

His  marshals  now  pointed  out  to  him  the  necessity  for  signing  an  abdication. 

"  The  Emperor,"  says  Constant,  "  became  daily  more  anxious  and  sad,  and 
I  observed  the  lively  agitation  caused  in  him  by  the  reading  of  despatches 
received  from  Paris.  This  agitation  was  several  times  so  great,  that  I  saw  how 
he  tore  his  thigh  with  his  nails  so  that  the  blood  came,  without  his  perceiv- 
ing it.  Several  times  the  Emperor  asked  Roustan  (his  Mameluke)  to  bring  him 
his  pistols ;  but  I  had  taken  the  precaution  to  tell  him  not  to  give  them  to  him, 
however  much  he  might  insist."  f 

At  length,  reluctantly,  he  drew  up  the  act  of  abdication  in  the  following 
terms  : — 

"  The  Allied  Powers  having  declared  that  the  Emperor  Napoleon  is  the  only 
obstacle  to  the  re-establishment  of  peace  in  Europe,  the  Emperor   Napoleon, 

*    BOURRIENNE,  iii.    I43.  t   CONSTANT,  vi.   76. 


474        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

faithful  to  his  oath,  declares  that  he  is  ready  to  descend  from  the  throne,  to  leave 
France,  and  even  lay  down  his  life  for  the  welfare  of  the  country,   which  is 
inseparable   from    the   rights  of  his   son,   from   those  of  the    Regency    of  the 
Empress,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  laws  of  the  Empire. 
"Given  at  our  palace  of  Fontainebleau,  6th  April,  1814. 

(Signed)     "  NAPOLEON." 


Signature  on  the  4TH  April,  1814. 

It  may  be  observed  that  his  natural  duplicity  did  not  even  then  leave  him. 
He  did  not  declare  that  he  abdicated,  but  only  that  he  was  "prepared"  to  do  so. 
Shortly  after,  having  been  told  of  the  arrival  of  an  Austrian  officer,  who 
declared  that  what  had  taken  place  in  Paris  had  been  contrary  to  the  wish  of  the 
Emperor  Francis,  he  bade  Caulaincourt  send  at  once  after  the  marshals,  and 
desire  them  to  return  to  him  his  act  of  abdication.  The  marshals,  however, 
absolutely  refused  to  surrender  the  document. 

Napoleon  was  highly  incensed  ;  he  threw  himself  on  a  little  yellow  sofa  near 
the  w^indow,  and  exclaimed,  "  With  my  Guards  and  Marmont's  corps,  I  shall  be 
in  Paris  to-morrow  !  " 

Nothing  remained  now  but  to  conclude  the  formal  treaty  between  Napoleon 
and  the  Allied  Powers,  and  it  was  signed  on  the  nth  April.  By  it.  Napoleon 
renounced  the  Empire  of  France  and  the  Kingdom  of  Italy  for  himself  and  his 
descendants.  The  island  of  Elba  was  selected  by  him  as  his  place  of  residence, 
and  it  was  erected  into  a  principality  in  his  favour.  Two  millions  five  hundred 
thousand  francs  a  year  were  promised  for  his  annual  income.  These  disastrously 
favourable  terms  he  owed  to  the  good-hearted  weakness  of  the  Czar. 

To  Bausset  he  said,  "  I  abdicate,  but  I  cede  nothing."  Pacing  up  and  down 
the  terrace  in  the  evening,  after  long  silence,  he  burst  forth  in  the  words,  "  A 
live  gudgeon  is  worth  more  than  a  dead  Emperor." 

That  same  night,  on  taking  leave  of  Caulaincourt,  he  said,  "  My  resolution  is 
taken  ;  we  must  finish,  I  feel  it."  Caulaincourt  had  not  been  long  in  bed,  before 
he  was  roused  by  Constant,  to  tell  him  that  the  Emperor  was  in  convulsions, 
and  was  dying.  He  instantly  ran  in.  Napoleon  had  attempted  to  poison  himself 
v/ith  some  prussic  acid  he  always  carried  about  with  him.  But  the  poison  had 
been  so  long  kept  that  it  had  lost  its  virulence,  and  after  violent  vomiting,  he 
recovered.     "  The  dose  was  not  strong  enough ;  God  did  not  will  it,"  he  said. 


ELBA 

(6  April,  1814—27  February,  181 5) 

^VTO  sooner  had  Napoleon  signed  his  abdication,  and  despatched  it,  than  his 
•^  ^  restless  mind  formed  schemes  for  defeating  it.  He  drew  up  a  plan,  which 
he  signed,  and  which  was  countersigned  by  the  Duke  of  Bassano,  by  virtue  of 
which  he  was  to  hasten,  with  20,000  men,  to  unite  with  the  Army  of  Italy,  under 
Eugene,  the  Viceroy. 

This  done.  Napoleon  sent  for  Oudinot,  Duke  of  Reggio,  and  asked  him  if 
his  troops  could  be  relied  on. 

"  No,  Sire,"  answered  Oudinot ;  "you  have  abdicated." 

"  Yes,  but  only  on  certain  conditions." 

"  The  soldiers,  Sire,"  answered  the  Duke,  "  do  not  understand  these  shades. 
They  believe  that  you  have  no  longer  the  right  to  command  them." 

"  Then  all  is  over  in  that  direction,"  said  Bonaparte ;  "  we  will  wait  for  news 
from  Paris." 

The  marshals  who  had  been  despatched  to  the  capital  with  his  abdication 
returned  about  midnight.  Marshal  Ney  (Prince  of  Moskowa)  was  the  first  to 
enter. 

"  Well,  have  you  succeeded  ?  "  asked  Napoleon. 

"  In  part,  Sire  ;  but  not  in  obtaining  acknowledgment  of  a  regency  on  behalf 
of  your  son.  Revolutions  never  go  backwards.  This  one  has  taken  its  course. 
The  Senate  will  to-morrow  acknowledge  the  Bourbons." 

"  And  where  am  I  and  my  family  to  live  ?  " 

"Where  would  your  Majesty  wish?  In  the  Isle  of  Elba,  with  a  revenue  of 
six  millions?" 

"  Six  millions.     Well,  I  must  resign  myself  to  it."  * 

The  Treaty  of  Fontainebleau  was  finally  ratified  on  the  13th  April.  Accord- 
ing to  his  own  request,  he  was  to  be  attended  to  the  place  of  embarkation  for 
Elba  by  a  Commissioner  from  each  of  the  Allied  Powers.  Though  he  received 
these  Commissioners  with  coldness,  he  thawed  towards  some  of  them.     The 

*  Tableau  de  VHist.  de  la  France^  Paris,  181 5,  p.  464.  This  book,  as  published  before  the  return 
from  Elba,  contains  some  interesting  particulars. 

475 


476        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

English  officer  appointed  to  be  with  him  was  Colonel  Campbell,  and  to  him 
Napoleon  said  : — 

"  I  have  cordially  hated  the  English.  I  have  made  war  against  you  by  every 
possible  means,  but  I  esteem  your  nation.  I  am  convinced  that  there  is  more 
generosity  in  your  Government  than  in  any  other.  I  should  like  to  be  conveyed 
from  Toulon  to  Elba  by  an  English  frigate." 

The  Prussian  Commissioner  was  Count  Waldburg.  To  him  said  the  fallen 
Emperor  dryly : — 

"  Are  there  any  Prussian  soldiers  in  my  escort  ?  " 

''  No,  Sire." 

"  Then  why  do  you  take  the  trouble  to  accompany  me  ?" 

"  Sire,  it  is  not  a  trouble,  but  an  honour." 

"  These  are  mere  words  ;  you  are  not  wanted  here !  " 

And  Napoleon  turned  his  back  on  the  Count. 

The  Commissioners  expected  that  Napoleon  would  be  ready  to  set  out 
without  delay ;  but  they  were  mistaken.  It  was  not  till  the  20th  that  he 
professed  himself  ready  to  depart,  and  then  only  at  his  own  time.  When 
the  grand  marshal,  Bertrand,  sent  to  announce  to  him  that  all  was  ready  for 
departure,  Napoleon  peevishly  answered,  "  Am  I  to  regulate  my  actions  by 
the  grand  marshal's  watch?  I  will  go  when  I  please.  Perhaps  I  may  not 
go  at  all." 

However,  he  descended  into  the  courtyard,  and  saw  his  Old  Guard  ranged 
before  him.  Then  ensued  a  moving  scene — Napoleon's  farewell  to  his 
soldiers.  He  walked  along  the  rank,  visibly  moved,  and  the  tears  ran  down 
the  cheeks  of  the  men,  several  of  whom  had  grown  grey  under  arms.  He 
addressed  them  : — 

"  Soldiers  of  the  Old  Guard,  I  bid  you  farewell.  For  twenty  years  I  have 
constantly  led  you  along  the  road  to  honour  and  glory.  In  these  later  times, 
as  in  prosperity,  you  have  been  models  of  courage  and  fidelity.  With  men  such 
as  you  our  cause  would  not  be  lost,  but  the  war  would  have  been  interminable. 
I  have  sacrificed  all  my  interests  to  those  of  the  country.  Her  happiness  is  my 
only  thought.  It  will  still  be  the  object  of  my  wishes.  Do  not  regret  my  fate. 
If  I  have  consented  to  survive,  it  is  in  order  to  serve  your  glory.  Adieu,  my 
friends  !     Would  I  could  press  you  all  to  my  heart !  " 

He  then  ordered  the  eagles  to  be  brought  to  him,  and,  having  kissed  them, 
he  added,  "  I  embrace  you  all  in  the  person  of  your  general.  Adieu,  soldiers  ! 
Be  always  gallant  and  good  !  " 

He  then  stepped  into  his  carriage,  accompanied  by  Bertrand. 

During  the  first  day  cries  of  "  Vive  I'Empereur ! "  resounded  along  the 
road. 

On  the  night  of  the  21st  he  slept  at  Nevers,  where  he  was  received  by 
the  acclamations  of  the  people.  He  left  Nevers  at  six  on  the  morning  of 
the  22nd  ;  and  there  the  Guards  left  him,  and  an  escort  of  Cossacks  took 
their  place. 


i 


ELBA 


477 


FAREWELL   TO   THE   OLD   GUARD. 


The  Emperor, 
General  Baron  Petit. 
Duke  of  Bassano. 
Baron  Fain. 
General  Bertrand. 
General  Drouot. 
General  Belliard. 
General  Ornano. 


@ 

Colonel  Gourgaud. 

Chief  of  Battalion  Athalin. 

Lieutenant  Forti. 

Officers  of  the  Foot  Grenadiers. 

General  Koller  (Austrian  Com- 
missioner). 

General  Kosakovvski. 

Colonel  Campbell  (English  Com- 
missioner). 


General     Schouwaloff    (Russian 

Commissioner). 
Officers  of  the  Light  Horse  and 

the  Old  Guard. 
The     First    Regiment    of    Foot 

Grenadiers,    and    officers    and 

non-commissioned  officers  of  the 

Old  Guard. 


A  little  north  of  Lyons,  at  La  Tour,  after  supper,  the  Emperor  went  out, 
and  walked  along  the  road.  He  sang,  in  his  harsh,  unmusical  tones,  "  O  Richard ! 
O  mon  Roi !  " — Gretry's  air — and,  leaning  against  a  poplar,  looked  up  into  the 
starry  sky.  A  priest  came  up,  and  Napoleon,  seeing  him,  asked  who  he  was. 
"Sire,  I  am  the  cure  of  this  commune."  ''Have  you  been  here  long?" 
"Since  its  formation  —  since  your  Majesty  restored  religion  to  France." 
Napoleon  walked  on  for  some  time  in  silence.  "  Then  he  asked.  Has  this 
village  suffered  much  ?  "     "  Greatly,  Sire  ;  its  burdens  were  over-heavy." 


478        THE    LIFE   OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  Emperor  pursued  his  way ;  at  length,  stopping  suddenly,  he  looked 
up  to  the  sky,  and  inquired  the  name  of  a  certain  star.  The  priest  was  unable 
to  inform   him.     "Ah!"  said   Napoleon,  "once  I  knew  the  names  of  all  the 

stars — and  of  my  own  ;  but  now "     He  was  silent  for  a  short  space,  and 

then  resumed  :  "  Yes  ;  now  I  forget  everything." 

They  were  approaching  the  house;  the  Emperor  took  some  gold  from  his 
pocket,  and  giving  it  to  the  priest,  said,  "  I  can  do  no  more  ;  but  the  humble  are 
great  in  the  eyes  of  God.  Pray  for  me,  and  my  alms  may  bring  forth  some 
fruit."     "  Sire  ! " 

The  pronunciation  of  this  single  word  had  probably  something  peculiar  in 
the  intonation,  for  the  Emperor  started  as  he  heard  it,  and  replied  :  "  Yes  ; 
perhaps  you  are  right — perhaps  I  was  too  fond  of  war ;  but  it  is  too  serious 
a  question  to  be  discussed  on  the  highway.  Once  more,  adieu.  Pray  for  me."  * 
For  once,  he  was  speaking  naturally.  There  was  no  object  now  for  acting 
a  part. 

As  Napoleon  arrived  in  the  south  of  France,  he  perceived  that  he  was  no 
longer  in  favour,  that,  indeed,  the  heart  of  the  people  was  bitter  against  him. 
Near  Valence  he  encountered  Augereau,  whom  he  had  created  Duke  of  Castig- 
lione,  and  who  was  an  underbred  fellow,  with  strong  Republican,  if  not  Jacobin, 
leanings.  Napoleon  and  his  marshal  met  on  the  24th  ;  Napoleon  took  off  his 
hat,  but  Augereau,  with  vulgar  insolence,  kept  his  on.  "  Where  are  you  going.?  " 
asked  the  Emperor,  "to  Court?"  ."No;  I  am  on  my  way  to  Lyons."  "You 
have  behaved  badly  to  me."  "  Of  what  do  you  complain  ?  "  asked  the  marshal, 
"  has  not  your  insatiable  ambition  brought  us  to  this  ?  Have  you  not  sacrificed 
everything  to  that  ambition,  even  the  happiness  of  PVance?  I  care  no  more 
for  the  Bourbons  than  for  you.  All  I  care  for  is  my  country."  Upon  this, 
Napoleon  turned  his  back  on  him,  and  re-entered  his  carriage.  Augereau 
would  not  even  then  remove  his  hat  and  bow,  but  saluted  his  former  master 
with  a  contemptuous  wave  of  the  hand. 

At  Valence,  the  fallen  Emperor  for  the  first  time  saw  French  soldiers  with 
the  white  cockade  in  their  caps.  At  Orange,  the  air  resounded  with  cries  of 
"  Vive  le  Roi ! " 

At  Lyons,  Napoleon  had  bought  up  all  the  pamphlets  and  fly-leaves  he 
could  get,  and  had  read  them  in  the  carriage.  Their  tone  was  not  compli- 
mentary. At  Avignon,  his  carriage  was  surrounded  by  a  furious  mob,  that 
would  have  torn  him  in  pieces,  but  for  the  presence  of  the  Commissioners. 

On  arrival  at  Orgon,  the  populace  yelled,  "  Down  with  the  Corsican  !  Down 
with  the  brigand  !  Death  to  the  tyrant !  Vive  le  Roi ! "  Portraits  of  Bona- 
parte were  produced  and  burnt  before  his  eyes ;  a  figure  of  himself  was 
fluttered  before  his  carriage  window,  with  the  breast  pierced,  and  dripping  with 
blood.  A  number  of  furious  women  screamed,  "Wild  beast!  What  have  you 
done  with  our  children  ?  "  The  Commissioners  were  obliged  to  stand  about  the 
carriage  to  protect  him  ;  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  a  way  could  be  made 
through  the  crowd  for  the  carriages  to  advance.     At  Saint  Cannat,  the  mob 

*  Madame  JUNOT,  Memoirs^  iii.  464. 


ELBA 


479 


smashed  the  windows  of  the  coach.  Then,  for  his  protection,  he  assumed  a  cap 
and  great-coat  of  Austrian  uniform,  and  instead  of  pursuing  his  journey  in  the 
coach,  entered  a  cabriolet.  The  carriages  did  not  overtake  the  Emperor  until 
they  came  to  La  Calade.  The  escort  found  him  standing  by  the  fire  in  the 
kitchen  of  the  inn  talking  with  the  landlady.  She  had  asked  him  whether  the 
tyrant  was  soon  to  pass  that  way.  "Ah  !  sir!  "  she  said,  "it  is  all  nonsense  to 
say  we  are  rid  of  him.  I  have  always  said  that  we  shall  never  be  sure  of  being 
done  with  him  till  he  is  at  the  bottom  of  a  well,  piled  over  with  stones.  I  wish 
we  had  him  safe  in  the  well  in  our  yard.  The  Directory  sent  him  to  Egypt  to 
get  rid  of  him,  but  he  returned.     And  he  will  come  back  again,  you  may  be 

sure  of  that,  sir,  unless "     Here  the  woman,  having  finished  skimming  her 

pot,  looked  up,  and  perceived  that  all  the  party  were  standing  uncovered  except 
the  individual  whom  she  was  addressing.  She  was  confounded,  and  her  em- 
barrassment amused  the  Emperor,  and  banished  his  anger.  After  that  she 
lavished  every  mark  of  attention  on  him. 

The  sous-pi'efet  of  Aix  closed  the  gates  of  the  town,  to  prevent  the  people 
from  issuing  forth,  and  the  horses  were  changed  outside  the  walls. 

At  a  chateau  near,  Napoleon  met  his  sister  Pauline,  who  was  ill,  or  who 
fancied  herself  ill,  and  was  staying  there.  When  he  entered  to  embrace  her, 
she  started  back.  "  Oh,  Napoleon,  why  this  uniform  ?  "  "  Pauline,"  replied  he, 
"do  you  wish  me  dead?"  The  Princess,  looking  at  him  steadfastly,  replied, 
"  I  cannot  kiss  you  in  that  Austrian  dress.  Oh,  Napoleon  !  what  have  you 
done  ?  " 

The  Emperor  at  once  retired,  and  having  substituted  a  great-coat  of  his  Old 
Guard  for  the  Austrian  one,  entered  the  chamber  of  his  sister,  who  ran  to  him 
and  embraced  him  with  tenderness.  Then,  going  to  the  window,  he  saw  a  crowd 
in  the  court,  in  a  very  uncertain  temper.  He  descended  at  once,  and  noticing 
in  the  crowd  an  old  man  with  a  gash  across  his  nose,  and  a  red  ribbon  in  his 
button-hole,  he  went  up  to  him  at  once,  and  asked,  "Are  you  not  Jacques 
Dumont?"*  "Yes,  yes,  Sire!"  and  the  old  soldier  drew  himself  up  and 
saluted.  "  You  were  wounded,  but  it  seems  to  me  a  very  long  time  ago." 
"  Sire,  at  the  battle  of  Trebia,  with  the  brave  General  Suchet ;  I  was  unable  to 
serve  longer.  But  even  now,  whenever  the  drum  beats,  I  feel  like  a  deserter. 
Under  your  ensign,  Sire,  I  could  still  serve  wherever  your  Majesty  would 
command."  The  old  man  shed  tears,  as  he  said,  "  My  name !  to  recollect  that 
after  fifteen  years."  All  hesitation  among  the  crowd  as  to  how  they  would 
receive  Napoleon  was  at  once  at  an  end.     He  had  won  every  heart. 

The  English  frigate,  the  Undaunted,  was  lying  off  Frejus.  Here  the  old 
Roman  port,  with  its  lighthouse,  is  now  inland,  and  two  miles  from  the  sea. 
Notwithstanding  the  wish  he  had  expressed  to  be  conveyed  to  his  destination 
in  an  English  vessel,  the  fallen  Emperor  manifested  considerable  reluctance  to 
go  on  board.  However,  on  the  28th  of  April,  he  sailed  from  S.  Raphael,  and 
encountered  rough  weather. 

On   the  3rd  May,  the  frigate  arrived  off  Porto  Ferrajo,  the  capital  of  his 

*  As  Napoleon  had  a  bad  memory  for  names,  this  anecdote  is  probably  **  improved." 


48o        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

miniature  empire  of  Elba.  One  of  his  officers  at  once  landed,  and  announced  to 
the  Commander  of  the  port  the  arrival  of  the  Emperor ;  whereupon  prepara- 
tions were  immediately  made  for  his  reception. 

On  the  morning  of  the  4th,  a  detachment  of  troops  brought  into  the  town 
the  flag  which  the  ex-Emperor  sent,  and  it  was  at  once  hoisted  on  the  fort,  to 
salvoes  of  artillery.  It  consisted  of  a  white  field,  strewn  with  bees,  in  the  centre 
the  arms  of  Bonaparte  impaled  with  those  of  the  island.* 

Soon  after,  Napoleon  landed  with  all  his  suite.  He  was  saluted  by  the 
artillery  of  the  fortress  and  of  the  forts  with  a  hundred  rounds,  as  Emperor 
of  the  little  realm.  The  English  frigate  responded  with  only  twenty-four. 
Napoleon  was  dressed  in  a  blue  great-coat  over  a  dress  embroidered  in  silver, 
and  on  his  head  a  round  hat  with  a  white  cockade  in  it.  On  entering  the  town 
he  was  met  by  the  authorities,  civil  and  ecclesiastical ;  after  some  harangues,  he 
entered  the  cathedral,  where  a  Te  Deum  was  sung.  On  leaving  the  church,  he 
was  conducted  to  the  Mayor's  palazzo,  which  was  provisionally  prepared  for  his 
reception.  He  seemed  to  be  in  good  spirits,  and  spoke  familiarly  with  all.  In 
one  of  his  addresses.  Napoleon  said,  "  When  I  was  certified  that  the  war  was  no 
more  being  waged  against  France,  but  against  myself,  then  I  was  too  much 
attached  to  that  State,  not  to  do  that  which  was  most  advantageous  for  it.  The 
abdication  of  a  throne  is  to  me  a  slight  sacrifice,  if  useful  to  France.  I 
abdicated  willingly.'' 

After  a  slight  repose,  he  mounted  his  horse,  and  rode  to  visit  Mariana, 
Campo,  Capo-Liveri,  and  Rio.  "My  faith!"  he  exclaimed,  "they  have  given 
me  a  very  small  realm."  The  population  at  that  time  was  13,380  souls.  The 
evening  concluded  with  a  dinner  party,  given  to  all  the  authorities. 

During  the  first  months  of  his  residence  in  Elba,  Napoleon's  life  was  one  of 
activity  and  almost  garrulous  frankness.  He  gave  dinners,  went  to  balls,  rode 
all  day  about  his  island,  planned  fortifications,  harbours,  and  palaces.  The 
second  day  after  he  landed,  he  fitted  out  an  expedition  of  a  dozen  soldiers,  to 
take  possession  of  a  small  uninhabited  island  called  Pianosa,  that  lies  a  few 
miles  from  Elba ;  and  on  this  occasion  he  said  laughingly,  "  Toute  I'Europe  dira 
que  j'ai  deja  fait  une  conquete." 

Elba  from  olden  times  was  famous  for  its  iron  mines.  Soon  after  his  arrival, 
Napoleon  visited  the  mines  in  company  with  Colonel  Campbell ;  and  on  being 
informed  that  they  produced  annually  about  500,000  francs,  he  joyfully 
exclaimed,  "  These,  then,  are  my  own."  But  one  of  his  followers  remarked  to 
him  that  he  had  already  disposed  of  that  revenue,  having  given  it  to  the  Order 
of  the  Legion  of  Honour.  "Where  was  my  head  when  1  made  that  grant?" 
said  he ;  "  but  I  have  made  many  foolish  decrees  of  that  sort."  f 

The  household  of  Napoleon,  though  reduced  to  thirty-five  persons,  still 
represented  an  Imperial  Court.  He  had  a  body-guard  of  700  infantry  and  80 
cavalry,  and  to  this  handful  of  men  he  paid  almost  as  much  attention  as  he  had 

*  The  Bonaparte  arms  are  in  very  bad  heraldry— Gules,  three  bars  between  three  stars  azure.  Those 
devised  for  Elba  by  Napoleon  were — Ar^. ,  on  a  bend  gules,  three  bees  or. 

t   BOURRIENNE,  iii.    I95. 


ELBA 


481 


formerly  given  to  the  Grand  Army.  Colonel  Sir  Neil  Campbell  was  left  in  Elba 
as  English  representative,  but  without  any  soldiers  to  support  him,  though  a 
brig  of  eighteen  guns  was  ordered  to  cruise  off  the  island. 

It  was  true  that  Napoleon  was  bound  by  the  Treaty  of  Fontainebleau  to 
accept  his  position ;  but  long  experience  had  taught  the  Powers  that  his  treaties 
were  torn  up  by  him  at  the  earliest  moment  convenient.  Lord  Castlereagh  had 
fully  appreciated  the  danger,  and  had  warned  the  Allies  against  sending  a  man 
so  ambitious,  so  full  of  resources,  and  with  so  many  friends,  to  an  island 
within  sight  of  Italy,  and  a  few  days'  sail  of  France,  of  placing  him  in  a 
situation,  of  all  others,  the  most  favourable  for  carrying  on  intrigues  with  both 
countries. 

That  was  not  all.  From  the  fortresses  in  Germany  70,000  veterans,  who  had 
served  as  garrison,  were  now  returned  to  France ;  and  the  Army  of  Spain, 
inured  to  warfare,  was  now  at  home.  The  whole  of  France  was  filled  with  old 
soldiers,  to  whom  the  Bour- 
bons were  nothing,  but  whose 
pulses  leaped  at  the  mention 
of  the  "  Petit  Caporal,"  or 
"Pere  la  Violette";  and  al- 
ready the  whisper  began  to 
pass  through  the  army  that, 
with  the  first  violets  of  the 
coming  spring.  Napoleon 
would  reappear  on  the  soil 
of  France. 

In  order,  as  it  were,  to 
furnish  Napoleon  with  a  justi- 
fication for  leaving  Elba,  the 
King,  Louis  XVIII.,  with  the 
stupidity  "  which  is  the  badge 

of  all "  the  Bourbon  "  tribe,"  failed  to  pay  him  the  allowance  that  was  cove- 
nanted to  him  by  the  Treaty  of  Fontainebleau  ;  although  Alexander  of  Russia, 
Francis  of  Austria,  and  Lord  Castlereagh,  as  the  representative  of  England, 
remonstrated,  alleging  that  the  honour  of  the  Allies  was  at  stake.  This  non- 
fulfilment  of  the  stipulation,  as  well  as  the  dread  of  deportation  to  some 
unhealthy  West  Indian  island,  were  the  excuses  which  Napoleon  made  for 
his  breach  of  the  contract. 

What  made  Napoleon  particularly  uneasy  was  the  rumour  that  he  would  not 
be  left  at  Elba,  but  be  removed  further  from  France.  This  would  have  upset  all 
his  plans.  One  day,  when  walking  with  Bertrand,  Drouot,  and  Sir  Neil  Camp- 
bell, after  long  silence  he  burst  out,  "  I  am  a  soldier.  Let  them  assassinate  me 
if  they  will.     I  will  not  be  deported." 

On  another  occasion  he  said  to  the  English  Commissioner,  "  Let  it  be  well 
understood,  I  will  never  allow  myself  to  be  carried  off.     To  do  that,  you  must 
make  a  breach  in  my  fortifications." 
21 


SAN   MARTI  NO. 

The  ex-Emperor's  residence  on  Elba. 


482 


THE  LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE 


tmmTjrfffff 

imit  if f#i 


It  was  certainly  a  cruelty  not  to  suffer  his  wife  and  son  to  be  sent  to  him, 
and  he  complained  of  this  bitterly  to  Campbell : — 

"  My  wife  no  longer  writes  to  me,"  he  exclaimed,  in  a  voice  trembling  with 
agitation  ;  "  my  son  has  been  taken  from  me,  as  of  old  they  were  wont  to  carry 
off  the  children  of  the  vanquished  to  adorn  the  triumphs  of  the  victors.  No 
such  an  example  of  barbarity  is  to  be  cited  in  modern  times." 

But  he  was  not  left  without  consolation.  The  Countess  Walewska,  with  the 
son  she  had  by  him  during  the  Polish  campaign,  visited  him  in  Elba,  but  only 
remained  there  two  days.  Other  ladies  with  whom  he  had  carried  on  intrigues 
came  to  the  island,  and  were  useful   to  him   as   means   of  conveying   secret 

despatches,  and  preparing  his  party 
in  France  to  expect  his  return. 

He  held  a  Court,  and  received 
ladies  twice  a  week.  Bonaparte  paid 
great  attention  to  those  who  were 
pretty,  and  asked  them  who  they 
were,  whether  they  were  married,  and 
who  their  husbands  were.  To  this 
last  question  he  received  one  general 
reply.  It  happened  that  every  lady 
was  married  to  a  merchant ;  but  when 
it  came  to  be  further  explained  that 
they  were  merchant-butchers,  mer- 
chant -  grocers,  merchant  -  chandlers, 
his  Majesty  allowed  an  expression  of 
dissatisfaction  to  escape  him,  and  he 
hastily  retired,  nor  did  he  further 
seek  their  society. 

Whilst  Napoleon  was  in  Elba,  he 
was  visited  by  Lord  Ebrington,  with 
whom  he  was  very  frank  in  his  de- 
scription of  the  characters  of  the  Allied  Sovereigns.  The  Emperor  Alexander, 
he  said,  was  unreliable,  but  intelligent ;  he  possessed  some  liberal  ideas,  but  was 
fickle  and  vain. 

At  the  very  same  time,  the  Czar,  in  conversation  with  Madame  Junot,  told 
her :  "  How  I  loved  that  man  !  I  do  assure  you  that  I  loved  him  as  much — 
perhaps  I  may  say  more  than  any  one  of  my  brothers,  and  when  he  betrayed 
me,  I  suffered  more  by  his  treachery  than  by  the  war  he  brought  upon  me." 
And  to  General  Regnier,  the  Czar  said  the  same  :  "  For  my  part,  I  can  no  longer 
place  any  confidence  in  him.  He  has  deceived  me  too  often.  We  can  have  no 
more  dealings  with  him."  It  was,  indeed,  the  falsity  of  Napoleon,  the  absolute 
worthlessness  of  his  word,  which  lost  him  the  love  and  trust  not  of  Alexander 
only,  but  also  of  his  own  generals. 

Of  the  Emperor  Francis,  Napoleon  said  to  Lord  Ebrington  :  "  I  would  rely 
upon  him  sooner  than  on  the  other.     If  he  gave  me  his  word  to  do  such  or 


MAP-HOLDER,    USED    BY    NAPOLEON    ON    ELBA. 


ELBA  483 

such  a  thing,  I  should  be  persuaded  that  at  the  moment  of  giving  it  he  meant 
to  keep  it ;  but  his  mind  is  very  limited — no  energy — no  character."  The  King 
of  Prussia  he  called  "  un  caporal"  without  an  idea  beyond  the  dress  of  a  soldier, 
and  "  infinitely  the  greatest  fool  of  the  three." 

In  order  to  completely  hoodwink  Sir  Neil  Campbell,  Bonaparte  affected 
a  great  'friendship  for  him.  He  became  very  communicative  and  confidential 
with  him  ;  invited  him  almost  daily  to  his  breakfast-table,  strolled  with  him 
about  the  island,  and  not  infrequently  went  with  him  fishing  in  a  little  boat  on 
the  sea.  On  such  occasions  he  would  say,  "  Now  we  are  out  of  their  hearing, 
ask  me  anything,  and  I  will  tell  you."  By  these  means  the  ex-Emperor  so 
duped  Sir  Neil,  that  though  this  officer  suspected  that  an  escape  was  meditated, 
he  by  no  means  supposed  it  was  near  of  accomplishment. 

It  is  said  that  long  before  the  close  of  the  year  18 14,  the  initiated  named 
the  month  and  almost  the  day  on  which  the  Emperor  would  return. 

Some  of  the  old  Republican  party,  including  men  who  had  conspired 
against  him,  disgusted  with  the  imbecility  and  reactionciry  measures  of  the 
Bourbons,  invited  Napoleon  to  return. 

The  brothers,  sisters,  and  other  relatives  of  Bonaparte,  all  rich,  and  one  of 
them,  Murat,  still  powerful,  promoted  the  widely-spread  plot,  for  they  all  felt 
that  by  his  fall  they  were  dropping  into  their  original  insignificance.*  Murat's 
wife,  Caroline,  a  violent-tempered,  ambitious  woman,  who  hen-pecked  her 
husband,  was  incessantly  telling  him  that  Austria  would  never  abide  by  her 
treaty  with  him,  and  that  his  throne  would  inevitably  be  taken  from  him,  and 
restored  to  King  Ferdinand. 

At  the  proper  moment,  when  the  mind  of  Joachim  was  oscillating  like  the 
pendulum  of  a  clock.  Napoleon  himself  wrote  to  tell  him  that  the  lion  was  not 
dead,  but  only  sleeping !     Murat  at  once  prepared  for  the  awakening. 

About  the  middle  of  summer.  Napoleon  was  visited  by  his  mother  and  his 
sister  Pauline.  Both  these  ladies  had  considerable  talents  for  political  intrigue, 
and  their  natural  faculties  had  not  become  rusty  from  want  of  practice. 
Pauline  was  still  beautiful,  graceful,  had  the  Bonaparte  faculty  of  fascination, 
and  also  the  Bonaparte  powers  of  dissimulation.  Everyone  knew  she  was  a 
fool,  and  therefore  no  one  suspected  her.  She  went  to  and  fro  between  Naples 
and  Elba,  and  contributed  largely  to  strengthen  her  sister  Caroline's  influence 
in  determining  the  irresolution  of  Murat. 

Everything  being  in  readiness,  on  the  26th  February,  181 5,  Napoleon  gave 
a  brilliant  ball  at  Porto  Ferrajo,  to  the  principal  persons  of  the  island.  It  was 
presided  over  by  Madame  Mere  and  his  sister  Pauline.  Sir  Neil  Campbell  was 
absent ;  he  had  gone  to  Leghorn  in  the  single  English  cruiser,  the  Partridge,  of 
18  guns.  Whilst  the  ball  was  at  its  height,  Napoleon  slipped  away,  and  joined 
his  Guard  and  Volunteers  who  had  arrived,  to  the  number  of  eleven  hundred, 
and  by  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  27th,  the  Emperor  stepped  on  board 
the  Inconstant,  brig.  His  air  was  calm  and  serene ;  he  turned,  smiled  on  those 
around,  and  said,  "  The  die  is  now  cast." 

*  We  must  except  Bernadotte. 


LI 
THE    HUNDRED    DAYS 

(i   March— 14  June,   18 15) 

^VJAPOLEON  was  in  the  highest  spirits  as  he  sailed  over  the  Ligurian  Sea 
■*-  ^  from  Elba  to  the  French  coast.  He  laughed,  joked,  broke  open  packages 
containing  choice  wines,  and  distributed  them  among  the  officers,  sailors,  and 
soldiers  on  board. 

A  French  brig  hove  in  sight.  He  ordered  his  Guards  to  remove  their  bear- 
skin caps,  and  lie  flat  on  deck,  to  avoid  discovery ;  and,  when  hailed  by  the 
captain,  who  asked  if  they  came  from  Elba,  and  if  so,  how  was  Napoleon,  the 
Emperor  himself  shouted  in  reply,  "  II  se  porte  a  merveille."  Suspecting 
nothing,  the  brig  continued  her  course,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  29th  the 
towers  of  Antibes  were  descried,  and  on  the  ist  March  the  little  fleet  cast 
anchor  in  the  Gulf  of  S.  Juan.  No  opposition  to  the  landing  was  offered  ;  but 
when  he  despatched  twenty-five  of  the  Old  Guard  to  Antibes,  to  endeavour  to 
seduce  the  garrison,  they  were  arrested,  and  detained  by  the  commander. 
General  Corsin. 

Next  morning  he  started  for  Grenoble,  by  Gap,  and  almost  at  once  ran 
against  the  Prince  Honore,  of  Monaco,  who  was  coming  in  his  carriage,  with  a 
livery  servant  on  the  box  who  had  formerly  been  in  the  service  of  the  Empress, 
to  take  possession  of  his  principality,  from  which  he  had  been  dispossessed  by 
Bonaparte. 

Both  descended  from  their  carriages,  and  a  dialogue  ensued  that  will  not 
admit  of  translation  : — 

"  Ou  allez  vous,  Monaco  ?  "  asked  Napoleon  bluntly. 

"  Sire,"  replied  Honore,  "  je  vais  a  la  decouverte  de  mon  royaume." 

The  Emperor  smiled,  'i  Voila  une  singuliere  rencontre,  monsieur,"  said  he, 
"Deux  Majestes  sans  place;  mais  ce  n'est  peut-etre  pas  la  peine  de  vous; 
deranger.  Avant  huit  jours  je  serai  a  Paris,  et  je  me  verrai  force  de  vous 
renverser  du  trone,  mon  cousin.  Revenez  plutot  avec  moi,  je  vous  nommerai 
sous-prefet  de  Monaco,  si  vous  y  tenez  beaucoup." 

"  Merci  de  vos  bontes.  Sire,"  replied  the  Prince  in  some  confusion  ;  "  mais  je 
tiendrais  encore  plus  a  faire  une  restauration,  ne  dut-elle  durer  que  trois  jours." 

"  Allons  !  faites  la  durer  trois  mois,  mon  cousin,  je  vous  garderai  votre  place 
de  chancellier,  et  vous  viendriez  me  rejoindre  aux  Tuileries." 

484 


THE    HUNDRED    DAYS 


485 


The  Provencals  neither  welcomed  Napoleon  nor  attempted  to  oppose  him. 
There  were  no  royal  troops  in  the  neighbourhood.  He  hurried  through 
Provence  into  Dauphine,  "the  cradle  of  the  Revolution,"  and  there  the 
people  began  to  flock  round  his  standard.  Still  no  troops  joined  him,  and 
he  felt  uneasy.  On  the  5th  of  March  he  issued  two  proclamations,  which 
had  been  written  on  board  ship,  but  which  he  could  not  get  printed  till 
he  reached  Gap. 


RECEPTION    BY   THE    SOLDIERS. 
From  a  picture  by  Steuben. 

The  proclamation  to  the  soldiers  was  in  Napoleon's  wonted  style — nervous, 
pointed,  inspiring  like  a  trumpet-blast : — 

"  Soldiers !  we  have  not  been  conquered  !  .  .  .  In  my  exile  I  have  heard 
your  voice ;  I  have  come  back,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles  and  every  danger.  Your 
General,  called  to  the  throne  by  the  choice  of  the  people,  and  raised  on  your 
shields,  is  restored  to  you  :  come  and  join  him.  Mount  the  tricolored  cockade  : 
you  wore  it  in  the  days  of  our  greatness.  We  must  not  forget  that  we  have 
been  the  masters  of  nations  ;  and  we  must  not  suffer  any  to  intermeddle  in  our 
affairs.  .  .  .  Resume  those  eagles  which  you  had  at  Ulm,  Austerlitz,  Jena,  at 
Eylau,  Wagram,  Smolensk,  Moscow,  Liitzen,  and  Montmirail.  .  .  .  Soldiers ! 
come  and  range  yourselves  under  the  banners  of  your  Chief;  his  existence  is 
only  made  up  of  yours ;  his  rights  are  only  those  of  the  people,  and  yours  ;  his 
interest,  honour,  glory,  are  no  other  than  your  interest,  honour,  and  glory. 
Victory  shall  advance  at  the  charge.     The  Eagle,  bearing  the  national  colours, 


486        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

shall  wing  from  steeple  to  steeple,  till  it  reaches  the  towers  of  Notre-Dame. 
Then  you  will  be  able  to  show  your  scars  with  honour ;  then  you  will  be  the 
liberators  of  your  country !  In  your  old  age,  surrounded  and  looked  up  to  by 
your  fellow-citizens,  they  will  listen  with  respect  as  you  recount  your  high 
deeds — *  I  was  a  part  of  that  Grand  Army  which  entered  twice  within  the  walls 
of  Vienna,  within  those  of  Rome,  Berlin,  Madrid,  and  Moscow,  and  which 
delivered  Paris  from  the  stain  which  treason  and  the  presence  of  the  enemy  had 
imprinted  on  it'     Honour  to  those  brave  soldiers,  the  glory  of  their  country." 

This  proclamation  was  rapidly  diffused  through  the  country,  and  thrilled  the 
hearts  of  his  soldiers,  whether  disbanded  and  dispersed,  or  still  held  under  the 
colours,  and  these  colours  that  they  despised. 

Within  six  leagues  of  Grenoble,  on  the  fifth  day  after  his  landing,  Napoleon 
first  met  a  battalion.  The  commanding  officer  refused  to  hold  a  parley.  The 
Emperor,  without  hesitation,  advanced  alone,  and  a  hundred  grenadiers  followed 
at  some  distance  in  the  rear.  The  sight  of  the  old  familiar  grey  coat  and 
cocked  hat,  the  firm  little  figure,  with  the  sharp-cut  features,  produced  a 
magical  effect  on  the  soldiers,  and  they  stood  motionless.  Napoleon  went 
straight  up  to  them,  and,  baring  his  breast,  said,  "  Let  him  that  has  the  heart 
kill  his  Emperor  ! "  The  soldiers  threw  down  their  arms,  their  eyes  filled  with 
tears,  and  cries  of  "Vive  I'Empereur!"  resounded  on  every  side.  Napoleon 
ordered  the  battalion  to  wheel  round  to  the  right,  and  all  marched  on 
together. 

Just  outside  the  walls  of  Grenoble,  Colonel  Labedoyere,  commanding  the 
seventh  regiment  of  the  line,  an  officer  of  gentle  birth,  who  had  been  promoted 
by  Louis  XVIII.,  and  had  taken  the  oath  to  him,  on  seeing  him,  rushed  before 
the  ranks,  and  invited  the  soldiers  to  follow  him.  A  drum  was  opened,  and 
found  to  be  stuffed  with  tricolor  cockades.  Instantly  all  the  soldiers  plucked 
off  their  white  favours,  and  trampled  them  under  foot  ;  they  mounted  the 
national  colours,  and  went  over  to  their  comrades. 

General  Marchand,  who  commanded  the  garrison  within  the  walls  of 
Grenoble,  shut  the  gates,  and  would  fain  have  done  his  duty ;  but  his  men 
joined  in  the  cry  of  "  Vive  I'Empereur ! "  and,  when  Bonaparte  blew  open  one 
of  the  gates  with  a  howitzer,  all  the  soldiers  did  what  the  seventh  regiment 
had  done  just  before  them.  Next  morning  the  civil  authorities  of  Grenoble 
renewed  their  allegiance.  Bonaparte  was  now  at  the  head  of  an  enthusiastic 
veteran  army  of  nearly  seven  thousand  men.  With  this  force  he  descended 
from  the  mountains  of  Dauphine,  and  appeared  before  the  walls  of  Lyons  on 
the  loth  of  March.  The  King's  brother,  the  Comte  d'Artois,  was  in  that  city, 
and  was  ably  and  honestly  assisted  by  Marshal  Macdonald,  who  would  not 
throw  his  oath  to  the  winds ;  but  the  troops  and  the  populace  of  Lyons 
followed  the  example  of  Grenoble ;  the  prince  and  marshal  were  obliged  to  fly 
for  their  lives,  and  Bonaparte  entered  that  second  city  of  France  in  triumph. 
One  man,  and  one  man  only,  of  the  National  Mounted  Guard,  that  had  been 
commanded  and  led  by  the  Comte  d'Artois,  followed  him  in  his  flight,  with 
a  chivalrous  devotion  worthy  of  being  recorded.  Napoleon  sent  the  man  the 
decoration  of  the  Legion  of  Honour,  in  recognition  of  his  fidelity. 


THE    HUNDRED    DAYS  489 

The  rest  of  the  march  to  Paris  was  one  of  triumph.  All  along  the  road 
the  Emperor  was  joined  by  soldiers,  in  detachments,  battalions,  or  entire 
divisions,  who  tore  the  white  cockade  from  their  caps,  and  mounted  the  tricolor. 
The  Bourbons  were  abandoned  by  the  entire  army ;  nevertheless,  except  at 
Grenoble  and  Lyons,  the  people  gave  few  or  no  signs  of  enthusiasm.  Many 
fled  out  of  the  way,  and  the  majority  of  those  who  remained  on  the  line  of 
march  gazed  in  stupid  bewilderment,  and  with  doubt  of  heart  as  to  whither 
this  new  Revolution  would  lead. 

In  Paris,  all  was  still. 

The  blunders  of  the  Royalists,  the  outrageous  conduct  of  the  returned 
emigres,  the  uninteresting  appearance  of  the  King — a  stout,  dull  old  man,  with 
black  velvet  boots,  and  incapacity  written  large  on  his  face — the  scurrility  of 
the  Royalist  press,  the  irritating  measures  adopted  by  the  Government,  had  all 
contributed  to  make  the  restored  Bourbons  disliked.  France  could  hardly 
endure  to  be  made  ridiculous,  after  having  been  humbled.  Accustomed  to 
have  at  her  head  and  as  her  representative  a  man  before  whom  all  Europe 
trembled,  of  vast  genius,  and  of  Greek  beauty,  she  could  ill  brook  to  have  him 
replaced  by  an  amiable,  gouty  nonentity. 

Lavallette,  who  was  at  the  time  in  Paris,  says,  "  Our  consternation  aug- 
mented from  day  to  day.  I  took  walks  in  the  suburbs,  and  found  everywhere 
the  appearance  of  complete  apathy.  .  .  .  The  position  of  the  Court  inspired  no 
interest ;  the  jests  to  which  it  was  exposed  gained  rapid  applause  ;  but  still,  the 
too  recent  presence  of  the  enemy  caused  great  anxiety,  and  in  a  sort  of  stupe- 
faction it  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  Emperor.  Nevertheless,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  young  men  enlisted  at  Vincennes  as  Royalists,  nobody  appeared 
willing  to  fight.  The  Comte  dArtois  returned  in  despair,  unable  to  place  any 
confidence  in  the  army.  All  the  regiments  he  had  met  with,  all  the  troops  he 
had  assembled,  had  refused  to  obey  his  orders."  * 

The  King,  bewildered,  frightened,  appealed  to  Marmont,  who  advised  him 
to  surround  himself  with  picked  men  in  the  Tuileries,  and  stand  a  siege ;  but  it 
would  have  required  a  man  of  resolute  soul  to  take  so  bold  a  measure.  Louis 
XVIII.  packed  up  his  portmanteau,  and  ran  away. 

It  was  late  in  the  evening  of  the  20th,  that  Bonaparte  entered  Paris  in  an 
open  carriage,  which  was  driven  straight  to  the  gilded  gates  of  the  Tuileries. 
He  received  the  acclamations  of  the  military,  and  of  the  lower  classes  of  the 
suburbs ;  but  most  of  the  respectable  citizens  looked  on  in  chill  wonderment. 
A  number  of  generals  and  officers  at  once  took  Napoleon  out  of  the  mud- 
bespattered  carriage,  lifted  the  little  man  on  their  shoulders,  and  carried  him 
up  to  the  state  apartments,  while  through  the  foggy  air  sounded  cries,  not  the 
most  enthusiastic,  of  "  Vive  I'Empereur !  " 

Thus  far,  all  seemed  to  go  well ;  but  the  triumph  was  soon  damped.  It  was 
impossible  not  to  see  that,  with  the  exception  of  some  of  the  faubourg  mobs, 
which  Napoleon  hated  and  feared,  the  people  of  Paris  were  silent,  lukewarm, 
cautious,  or  averse. 

Then  came  brother  Lucien,  with  his  tail  of  Liberals,  including  Carnot  and 

*  Memoirs,  ii.  171. 


490 


THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


Fouche,  protesting  that  promises  of  a  Constitutional  Government  that  should  be 
frankly  representative,  of  liberty  of  the  Press,  and  control  over  the  expenditure 
must  be  given  in  good  earnest,  and  that  this  restoration  must  inaugurate  a  new 
system  of  rule. 

Bonaparte  replied,  dissembling  his  irritation,  that  there  would  be  time  for 
making  a  good  Constitution  hereafter,  when  he  had  dissolved  the  European 
Confederacy  ;  every  thought  must  be  turned  to  raising  money  and  troops,  the 
casting  of  cannon,  and  the  manufacture  of  ammunition.  But  the  Liberals- 
stuck  to  their  point.  The  Constitution  must  come  first,  their  exertions  in  his 
cause  afterwards.     Napoleon  saw  how  great  his  difficulties  were,  and  understood 

that  he  must  accept  the  terms 
offered  him.  But  this  new 
attitude  did  not  suit  him. 
He  became  aware  that  the 
moment  for  despotic  govern- 
ment was  at  an  end,  when 
one  so  devoted  as  Labedoyere 
exclaimed,  the  moment  some- 
thing was  said  about  pro- 
scriptions, "  Oh  !  if  there  is 
going  to  be  a  renewal  of  perse- 
cutions, this  won't  last  long." 
The  Emperor  yielded 
sullenly.  He  summoned 
Benjamin  Constant,  and  bade 
him  draw  up  the  necessary 
Constitution.  But  every  time 
that  Napoleon  heard  the  terms 
read,  "  Liberty  of  the  press, 
liberty  of  opinions,  electoral 
liberty,  the  inviolability  of  the  Chamber,"  he  uttered  a  cry  as  of  pain.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  his  arbitrary  powers  were  undergoing  amputation,  and  he 
exclaimed,  "You  have  bound  my  arms.  I  shall  be  no  longer  recognised." 
The  Bonapartists  were  indignant  at  the  demands  of  the  Constitutionals  ;  even 
that  strutting  democrat,  Lucien,  who  had  been  the  first  to  claim  his  right  to  be 
a  Prince  of  the  Empire,  growled  that  this  was  limiting  the  Imperial  power  too 
greatly. 

Napoleon  announced  that  the  new  Constitution  would  be  submitted  to  the 
Electoral  Colleges,  and  be  ratified  by  a  plebiscite.  The  plebiscite  took  place  in 
the  midst  of  general  indifference.  Among  five  million  electors,  there  were  three 
million  abstentions. 

Directly  Napoleon  attempted  to  fill  places  in  his  Government,  he  was 
obliged  to  face  the  fact  that  confidence  in  the  stability  of  his  Empire  was  at  an 
end.  Offers  of  places  were  made,  and  refused.  Cambaceres  declined  the  situa- 
tion of  Minister  of  Justice ;    Caulaincourt  refused  the  portfolio  of  Minister  of 


SIR' 


I    AM    A    RELIC   OF   AUSTERLITZ  !" 
From  a  lithograph  by  Charlet. 


THE    HUNDRED    DAYS  491 

Foreign  Affairs ;  Mole  declined  the  same  office,  and  frankly  informed  the 
Emperor  that,  in  his  belief,  the  drama  was  at  an  end,  the  dead  could  not  be 
resuscitated.  He  was  thus  driven  on  the  old  Republicans.  He  called  Carnot 
to  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior.  To  satisfy  the  military,  he  confided  the 
Ministry  of  War  to  Davoust,  whose  talents,  energy,  and  favour  with  the 
soldiery  were  displeasing  to  him.  Finally,  he  was  forced  to  endure  Fouche, 
master  of  all  the  Imperial  secrets,  who  he  knew  to  be  negotiating  with  the 
enemy  to  betray  him.  A  disinclination  to  take  office  was  manifest  even  in  the 
inferior  departments  of  Government.  The  situation  of  prefet^  once  an  object 
of  ambition,  was  now  shrunk  from  as  entailing  risk  ;  and  the  Emperor  was 
forced  to  bestow  it  on  men  who  were  incompetent,  and  who  had  actually  been 
disgraced  under  the  Empire. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  year  1815^  the  Congress  of  Vienna  had  assembled 
to  regulate  the  affairs  of  Europe,  the  boundaries  of  the  several  States,  and 
various  matters  that  necessitated  immediate  settlement.  Eight  Powers  were 
represented.  The  Congress  had  done  little  more  than  fall  out  on  every  possible 
question,  and  the  plenipotentiaries  had  been  rather  engrossed  in  amusing  them- 
selves than  in  settling  anything,  provoking  the  remark  of  the  Prince  de  Eigne, 
"  Parbleu  !  if  the  Congress  takes  few  steps,  at  least  it  dances  well." 

The  news  of  the  landing  of  Napoleon  in  France  arrived  in  Vienna  at  the 
moment  when  most  of  the  plenipotentiaries  and  all  the  elite  of  Vienna  were 
present  at  a  tableau  vivant,  representing  the  entry  of  Maximilian  and  Mary  of 
Burgundy  into  Brussels.  When  the  tidings  began  to  be  whispered,  general  in- 
attention ensued,  then  the  ambassadors  and  other  statesmen  stole  out,  and  a  thrill 
of  stupefaction  and  fear  passed  through  the  entire  audience. 

This  was  on  the  13th  March,  and  the  re-establishment  of  concord  among  the 
ministers  of  the  eight  Powers  was  the  first  result  of  a  disaster  largely  due  to 
their  dissensions.  They  at  once  signed  an  agreement  whereby  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  was  declared  an  outlaw,  a  violator  of  treaties,  and  a  disturber  of  the 
peace  of  the  world,  and  delivered  him  over  to  public  vengeance.  Great  Britain 
agreed  to  maintain  125,000  men,  Austria  to  furnish  300,000  men,  Russia 
225,000,  Prussia  236,000,  the  various  States  of  Germany  150,000,  and  Holland 
afterwards  agreed  to  supply  50,000,  and  not  to  dissolve  the  bond  till  Napoleon 
was  again  crushed.  This  declaration  of  the  Congress  6f  Vienna  came  as  a 
thunderbolt,  that  frightened  the  entire  population  of  France.  The  eastern  pro- 
vinces had  felt  what  invasion  meant,  and  were  unwilling  to  undergo  again  the 
same  experience,  and  the  rest  of  France  was  well  aware  that  to  resist  such  a 
coalition  was  to  court  destruction.  The  soldiers  alone  were  sanguine.  The 
peasants  were  frightened,  the  citizens  stupefied. 

Napoleon  realised  the  situation,  and  he  appealed  to  the  army  and  to  the 
rabble,  who  had  nothing  to  lose.  The  first  evening  of  his  return,  as  he  walked 
round  the  glittering  circle  met  to  welcome  him  in  the  state  apartments  of  the 
Tuileries,  he  kept  repeating,  '*  Gentlemen,  it  is  to  the  poor  and  disinterested 
mass  of  the  people  that  I  owe  everything  ;  it  is  they  who  have  brought  me  back 
to  the  capital.     It  is  the  poor  non-commissioned  officers  and  common  soldiers 


492        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

who  have  done  all  this.  Remember  that !  I  owe  everything  to  the  army  and 
the  people ! "  But  when  on  the  14th  of  May  a  grand  parade  of  the  Jacobins 
and  the  rabble  of  the  faubourgs  was  held,  and  marched  along  the  boulevards  to 
the  Tuileries,  shouting  the  songs  of  the  Revolution — the  "  Marseillaise,"  the 
*'  Carmagnol,"  the  "  Jour  du  depart,"  the  execrable  ditty,  the  burden  of  which 
is,  "  With  the  entrails  of  the  last  priest  let  us  strangle  the  last  king  " — then  his 
disgust  and  abhorrence  could  not  be  concealed.  He  received  •  them  with  his 
Guards  drawn  up  under  arms,  and  with  his  cannon  charged  ;  and  he  dismissed 
them  with  few  words,  some  coin  and  drink. 

Poor  Josephine  did  not  live  to  see  the  return  of  Napoleon  from  Elba.  She 
had  caught  cold,  which  settled  in  her  throat,  and  she  died  at  Malmaison  on  the 
29th  May,  1 8 14.  The  utmost  courtesy  and  respect  had  been  shown  her  by  the 
Allies  on  their  entry  into  Paris ;  indeed,  the  Czar  Alexander  spent  with  her 
nearly  the  whole  day  on  which  she  died.  It  was  perhaps  as  well  ;  had  she 
lived  till  Napoleon's  return,  she  would  have  committed  some  act  of  folly  that 
would  have  compromised  him. 

Bourrienne  records  a  conversation  relative  to  Josephine  that  the  Emperor 
had  with  Horan,  one  of  the  physicians  who  attended  her  during  her  last  illness. 
He  sent  for  Honan  a  few  days  after  his  return  : — 

"  So,  Monsieur  Horan,"  said  he,  "you  did  not  leave  the  Empress  during  her 
malady  ?  "  "  No,  Sire."  "  What  was  the  cause  of  her  malady  ?  "  "  Uneasiness 
of  mind,  grief"  "  You  think  so  ?  Was  she  long  ill  ?  Did  she  suffer  much  ?  " 
"  She  was  ill  a  week.  Sire  ;  her  Majesty  suffered  little  bodily  pain."  "  Did  she 
see  that  she  was  dying  ?  Did  she  show  courage  ?  "  "  A  sign  her  Majesty  made 
when  she  could  no  longer  express  herself,  leaves  me  no  doubt  that  she  felt  her 
end  approaching.  She  seemed  to  contemplate  it  without  fear."  "  Well,  well ! " 
and  then  Napoleon,  much  affected,  drew  close  to  M.  Horan,  and  added,  "  You 
say  that  she  was  in  grief ;  from  what  did  that  arise  ?  "  "  From  passing  events, 
Sire  ;  from  your  Majesty's  position  last  year."  "  Ah  !  she  used  to  speak  of  me, 
then  ?  "  "  Very  often."  Here  Napoleon  drew  his  hand  across  his  eyes,  which 
seemed  filled  with  tears.  He  then  went  on :  "  Good  woman !  Excellent 
Josephine  !  She  loved  me  truly — she — did  she  not  ?  Oh,  she  was  a  French- 
woman ! "  "  Yes,  Sire,  she  loved  you,  and  she  had  conceived  an  idea  of 
displaying  it."  *'  How  ?  "  "  She  one  day  said  that  as  Empress  of  the  French 
she  would  drive  through  Paris  with  eight  horses  to  her  coach,  and  all  her 
household  in  gala  livery,  and  go  and  rejoin  you  at  Fontainebleau,  and  never 
quit  you  more."     "  She  would  have  done  it.     She  was  capable  of  doing  it." 

There  was  bitterness  in  his  heart  as  he  contrasted  Josephine,  the  deserted, 
with  Marie  Louise,  who  had  deserted  him.  "  She  loved  me !  She  was  a 
Frenchwoman  ! "  When  he  spoke  these  words,  he  was  thinking  of  his  second 
Empress.  Marie  Louise  did  not  love  him,  and  never  had  ;  she  feared  and 
disliked  him.  It  was  not  all  her  father's  doing  that  she  did  not  go  to  him  in 
Elba.  It  was  due  to  her  own  repugnance.  She  had  been  given  Parma  as  a 
residence,  and  she  feared  to  go  there,  because  it  was  near  enough  to  Elba  to 
make  her  fear  that  the  proximity  might  lead  to  reunion.  And  now  letters  from 
Meneval  arrived  to  tell  Napoleon  that  she  had  no  intention  of  returning  to 
him.     She  had,  in  fact,  formed  an  attachment  for  her  one-eyed  chamberlain  ; 


THE    HUNDRED    DAYS  493 

and  this  shortly  became  an  infatuation.    She  was  a  feeble-minded,  little-hearted, 
characterless  person. 

The  situation  of  Napoleon  is  admirably  drawn  by  Lavallette,^his  friend,  and 
one  who  was  sentenced  to  be  shot  by  the  Bourbons,  after  their  second  return, 
because  he  had  been  faithful  to  the  Emperor : — 

"  Fallen  from  the  throne,  erased  from  the  list  of  Sovereigns,  banished  to  the 
rock  of  Elba,  he  was  a  thing  of  the  past ;  now  he  returned  almost  alone. 
Scarcely  had  he  set  his  foot  on  the  French  shore,  when  the  people  everywhere 
rose.  All  France  repeated  enthusiastically :  'No  more  royalty !  No  more 
Bourbons  !  It  is  Napoleon  alone  that  France  desires  ! '  And  indeed  peasants, 
soldiers,  citizens,  all  hastened  to  meet  him  ;  all  hailed  him  with  their  wishes  and 
gratitude,  like  a  good  genius,  like  a  Providence.  The  royalty  of  the  Bourbons 
was  no  longer  anything  but  a  dream.  It  was  as  though  royalists,  nobles, 
emigres,  had  never  existed.  This  was  not  the  result  of  a  conspiracy;  it  was 
a  great  national  movement  Hke  that  of  1789  for  Liberty,  of  the  9th  Thermidor 
against  Tyranny,  of  the  i8th  Brumaire  against  Incapacity.  What  other 
instances  in  history  are  there  of  defections  so  abrupt,  so  remarkable,  and  in 
some  respects  so  sincere?  Patriotism,  love  of  glory,  and  an  enlightened 
conviction  that  the  recently-imported  dynasty  could  do  nothing  for  the  happi- 
ness and  independence  of  the  kingdom — these  were  the  motives.  But  within 
eight  days  I  became  aware  that  a  deep  gulf  was  yawning  under  our  feet.  The 
great  fault  of  Napoleon's  reign  had  now  to  be  paid  for — I  mean  the  want 
of  ensemble,  the  absence  of  all  such  laws  as  were  desired  by  the  friends  of 
Liberty.  It  was  the  want  of  this  which  had  weakened  his  former  position,  and 
which  fatally  affected  his  present  position.  .  .  .  The  eleven  months  of  the 
King's  reign  had  thrown  us  back  on  1792,  and  the  Emperor  soon  perceived 
this  ;  for  he  no  longer  found  the  submission,  the  deep  respect,  and  the  Imperial 
etiquette  to  which  he  had  been  accustomed.  He  used  to  send  for  me  twice  or 
thrice  a  day,  and  talk  with  me  for  hours  together.  It  happened  sometimes  that 
the  conversation  flagged.  One  day,  after  we  had  walked  up  and  down  the 
room  two  or  three  times  in  silence,  tired  of  this  sort  of  thing,  and  my  business 
pressing  me,  I  made  my  obeisance,  and  was  about  to  retire.  '  How ! '  said  he, 
surprised,  '  do  you  leave  me  thus  ? '  I  would  certainly  have  done  so  a  year 
before ;  but  I  had  forgotten  my  former  pace,  and  I  felt  I  could  not  get  back 
into  it  again.  In  one  of  our  conversations,  the  subject  was  the  Spirit  of  Liberty 
that  was  abroad  and  energetic.  He  said  to  me  in  a  tone  of  interrogation  :  'All 
this  will  last  two  or  three  years  ? '  '  That  your  Majesty  does  not  believe. 
It  will  last  for  ever  ! ' 

"  He  was  soon  convinced  of  the  fact  himself,  and  he  more  than  once 
acknowledged  it.  The  Allies  made  a  great  mistake  in  not  leaving  him  alone. 
I  do  not  know  what  concessions  he  might  have  made,  but  I  am  well  acquainted 
with  what  the  nation  would  have  demanded  ;  and  I  sincerely  think,  had  he 
granted  them,  he  would  have  become  utterly  disgusted  with  having  to  reign  as 
a  constitutional  king.  Nevertheless,  he  submitted  admirably  to  his  situation — 
at  least,  in  appearance.  At  no  period  of  his  life  had  I  seen  him  enjoy  more 
unruffled  tranquillity.  Not  a  harsh  word  to  anyone ;  no  impatience ;  he  listened 
to  everything,  and  discussed  matters  with  the  wonderful  sagacity  and  power 
of  reasoning  that  were  so  conspicuous  in  him.  He  acknowledged  his  faults 
with  most  touching  ingenuousness,  and  examined  into  his  own  position  with 
a  penetration  to  which  even  his  enemies  were  strangers," 

Although  obliged  to  accept  the  aid  of  the  Liberals,  when  with  his  intimates 
he  did  not  conceal  his  aversion  for  them.    "  The  empty  fools,  the  babblers,"  said 


494        THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

he,  "they  talk  when  we  ought  to  be  fighting.  They  want  to  fetter  my  strong 
arm.  Will  their  weak  ones  avail  the  nation  ?  One  thing  is  clear  to  me,  France 
does  not  possess  the  elements  of  Representative  Government;  she  wants 
a  Dictator,  like  me." 

He  was  galled  to  find  that  those  whom  he  had  raised  to  wealth  and  title 
deserted  him.  To  Benjamin  Constant  he  said,  "In  the  situation  in-  which 
I  stand,  my  only  nobility  is  the  rabble  of  the  faubourgs,  and  I  know  no  rabble 
save  the  nobility  I  created." 


I 


WATERLOO,    i8tH   JUNE,    1815. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Raffet. 


LII 


WATERLOO 


(15-18  June,  1815) 


ON  leaving  Elba,  Napoleon  had  already  formed  his  plans  for  meeting  the 
Coalition.  He  had  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  soldiers  would  everywhere 
flock  to  his  standard,  and  that  his  marshals  would  revert  to  him  from  the 
Bourbons,  making  as  light  of  their  oaths  as  he  did  himself  when  bound  by 
a  solemn  engagement.  He  then  intended  to  plant  an  Army  of  the  North 
across  the  roads  from  Belgium  into  France,  pivoted  on  the  triple  line  of 
fortresses  that  gird  the  north  and  east.  Where  the  forces  of  the  Allies  were 
he  did  not  know,  nor  the  course  they  were  likely  to  take  to  invade  France. 
He  aimed  at  striking  at  the  weakest  and  most  irresolute  of  the  members  of 
the  Alliance.  Murat  was  ordered  to  stir  up  insurrections  in  Italy.  The  Po 
being  crossed,  Murat  was  to  advance  on  the  capital  of  Lombardy.  Napoleon 
purposed  joining  him  with  an  Army  of  Italy ;  and  then,  in  combination  with 
Murat,  intended  to  cross  the  Julian  Alps,  at  the  head  of  100,000  men,  and  take 
Vienna  for  the  third  time. 

But  the  plan  was  frustrated  by  the  premature  action  of  Murat,  and  his 
failure,  and  also  by  the  rapidity  with  which  the  Prussians  and  English  con- 
centrated in  Belgium  ;  so  that  it  became  obvious  to  him  that  the  scene  of  the 
conflict  would  not  be  in  the  plains  of  Lombardy,  nor  on  the  Marchfeld,  near 
the  Danube,  but  on  the  confines  of  Flanders. 

495 


496        THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

He  prepared  for  this  great  struggle  with  his  usual  energy.  The  Imperial 
factories  were  stimulated  to  activity;  contractors  provided  20,000  cavalry 
horses  before  the  ist  June,  and  10,000" horses  for  the  dismounted  gendarmerie, 
12,000  horses  for  the  artillery,  in  addition  to  6,000  which  the  army  already  had. 

The  King  had  taken  to  his  heels  with  such  precipitation,  that  he  had  left 
behind  him  the  treasury-chests  well  filled  with  cash,  on  which  Napoleon  at  once 
laid  his  hands. 

"  But  the  chief  resource  which  Napoleon  found  on  his  return  was  in  the 
goodwill  of  the  people,  and  in  the  confidence  of  the  great  French  and  Dutch 
capitalists  arising  oiit  of  it.  Voluntary  donations  were  also  numerous,  and  in 
some  departments  exceeded  a  million  francs.  At  the  military  parades  he  was 
often  presented  with  bundles  of  bank-bills,  and,  on  his  return  to  the  palace,  had 
to  give  the  Minister  of  the  Treasury  80,000  or  100,000  francs  which  he  had 
received  in  this  manner."  * 

Napoleon  left  Paris  on  the  12th  June  to  join  the  army  he  had  collected  at 
Lille,  Laon,  and  Valenciennes.  On  the  14th,  he  issued  one  of  his  vigorous 
proclamations  to  the  soldiers  : — 

"  This  day  is  the  anniversary  of  Marengo  and  Friedland,  which  twice  de- 
cided the  destiny  of  Europe.  After  Austerlitz  and  Wagram  we  were  too 
generous.  We  believed  in  the  protestations  and  oaths  of  princes,  to  whom 
we  left  their  thrones.  Now,  leagued  together,  they  strike  at  the  independence 
and  sacred  rights  of  France.  Let  us  march  forward  and  meet  them.  Are  we 
not  the  same  men  ?  Soldiers  !  at  Jena  these  Prussians  were  three  to  our  one, 
at  Montmirail  six  to  our  one.  .  .  .  The  Saxons,  Belgians,  Hanoverians,  and 
soldiers  of  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  lament  to  have  to  use  their  arms 
on  behalf  of  princes  who  are  the  enemies  of  justice,  and  destroyers  of  the 
rights  of  nations.  .  .  .  Madness !  one  moment  of  prosperity  has  bewildered 
these  Allies.  .  .  .  Soldiers !  forced  marches  are  before  us,  battles  to  be  fought, 
dangers  to  be  encountered  ;  but,  firm  in  resolution,  victory  must  be  ours.  The 
honour  and  happiness  of  our  country  are  at  stake !  and,  in  short,  Frenchmen, 
the  moment  has  arrived  when  we  must  conquer  or  die."  * 

It  has  been  ascertained  that  Napoleon  was  ill  at  the  time  of  the  great 
battles  that  were  to  decide  his  fate,  and  that  therefore  genius  failed  him,  and 
that  his  energy  and  versatility  were  lacking.  He  was  already  feeling  the  first 
intimations  of  the  disorder  of  which  he  died.  Lavallette  says,  "  He  suffered 
a  great  deal  from  a  pain  in  his  breast " ;  but  he  adds,  "  He  stepped  into  his 
coach,  however,  with  a  cheerfulness  that  seemed  to  show*  he  was  conscious  of 
victory."  f 

There  was  no  lack  of  resolution  and  of  thought  in  his  plans  for  the  cam- 
paign. He  proposed  doing  what  he  had  done  in  Italy,  where  he  had  driven  his 
army,  as  a  wedge,  between  the  Sardinians  and  the  Austrians,  and  then  had 
attacked  and  beaten  each  in  detail.  He  had  done  the  same  the  year  before, 
when  the  Allies  marched  into  France.  He  had  now,  as  then,  opposed  to  him 
the  brave  and  blundering  Bliicher  in  command  of  the  Prussians  ;  but  he  could 
not  now  calculate  on  having  a  Schwarzenberg  at  the  head  of  the  allied  force. 

Brussels  was  the  headquarters  of  the  army  under  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 

*  BOURRIENNE,  Hi.  287.  f  Memoirs,  ii.  223. 


] 


WATERLOO  497 

and  he  had  to  maintain  his  communications  with  England.  His  army  was 
composed  of  106,000  men,  of  whom  not  one-third  were  British.  The  Belgian 
contingent  was  useless,  made  up  of  timid  little  men,  on  whom  small  reliance 
could  be  placed.*  The  base  of  Bliicher  was  at  Namur,  and  he  had  to  preserve 
his  communications  with  Germany.  Knowing  that  his  adversary  would  bring 
with  him  a  powerful  artillery,  Wellington  had  applied  for  150  British  field- 
pieces  ;  but  so  miserably  had  he  been  supplied  by  our  Government,  and  by 
those  who  kept  the  keys  at  Woolwich,  where  were  guns  enough  to  cannonade 
the  world,  that,  when  he  united  all  his  English  guns  with  those  of  the  Dutch 
and  Germans  under  him,  he  found  he  had  only  84  pieces. 

Four  great  paved  roads  converged  at  Brussels,  all  leading  from  France ;  and 
by  which  of  these  Napoleon  would  advance,  could  not  be  told.  Accordingly  the 
Duke  was  obliged  to  guard  all  four;  and  thus  it  was  that  18,000  men  were  at 
Hall,  and  were  not  engaged  ;  and  he  himself  remained  at  Brussels  till  he 
should  receive  information  as  to  the  route  by  which  the  French  intended 
to  advance. 

Napoleon  marched  from  Avesnes  to  Charleroi,  with  the  object  of  separating 
the  Prussians  from  the  Allies  under  Wellington ;  he  entrusted  to  Ney  the  attack 
on  the  position  of  the  latter  at  Quatre  Bras,  whilst  he  fell  with  overwhelming 
weight  on  Bliicher  at  Ligny.  The  Prussians  were  defeated  after  an  heroic 
resistance,  and  fell  back  on  Wavre.  The  English  held  their  own,  and  defeated 
Ney  at  Quatre  Bras  ;  but  when  Wellington  found  that  the  Prussians  had  fallen 
back,  he  was  obliged  to  withdraw  as  well,  in  the  direction  of  Brussels,  and  take 
up  his  position  at  Waterloo.  The  two  battles  of  Ligny  and  Quatre  Bras  were 
fought  on  the  i6th  June. 

The  campaign  was  thus  almost  won  at  the  outset,  and  Napoleon  had  been 
able  to  separate  the  Allies.  This  was  owing  partly  to  Wellington's  undue 
strengthening  of  his  communications  with  the  sea,  and  weakening  his  left, 
which  was  covered  by  Bliicher. 

•  The  night  of  the  17th,  during  which  Wellington's  men  lay  on  the  wet  earth, 
or  in  the  dripping  corn-fields,  was  a  dreary  night,  with  heavy  rain,  thunder  and 
lightning,  and  violent  gusts  of  wind.  They  longed  for  the  morrow.  It  came  at 
last;  but  Sunday,  the  i8th  of  June,  was  dull,  with  a  drizzling  rain,  and  heavy 
clouds  that  cut  off  every  ray  of  sun.  Wellington's  force  numbered  72,720  men  ; 
of  this  number,  including  the  King's  German  Legion,  which  deserved  to  be 
classed  with  English  troops,  36,273  were  British,  7,447  were  Hanoverians,  8,000 
were  Brunswickers,  and  21,000  were  Belgian  and  Nassau  troops;  those  from 
Holland  and  Nassau  alone  of  good  quality,  but  almost  paralysed  by  the 
cowardice  of  their  Belgian  associates.  Napoleon  had  now  resolved  on  throw- 
ing himself  with  immense  force  on  the  English  and  their  Allies,  as  he  had 
beaten  and  driven  back  the  Prussians.  He  left  Grouchy  with  32,000  men  to 
watch  and  annoy  the  latter,  and  he  collected  in  front  of  Waterloo  about  78,000 
men,  veterans  almost  to  a  man  ;  and  there  were  at  least  100,000  soldiers  of  the 
same  quality  behind,  coming  up  as  reinforcements.    On  the  other  side,  of  British 

*  "  Much  great  coat  and  very  little  man,"  as  Bismarck  descriLei  a  Belgian  soldier  in  1871. 
2    K 


498        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


soldiers,  though  Wellington  had  some  of  his  well-approved  troops  from  the 
Peninsula,  the  rest  was  composed  of  men  who  had  never  smelt  powder. 

When,  early  in  the  morning,  Napoleon  mounted  his  horse  to  survey- 
Wellington's  position,  he  could  see  comparatively  few  troops.  This  induced 
him  to  suppose  that  the  English  were  in  retreat ;  but  General  Foy,  who  had 
served  in  Spain,  shook  his  head,  and  answered,  "  Wellington  never  shows  his 
troops ;  but  if  he  be  yonder,  I  must  warn  your  Majesty  that  the  English 
infantry,  in  close  fighting,  is  the  very  devil!" 

The  Emperor  did  not  un- 
derstand the  fighting  power 
of  an  Englishman,  nor  the 
ability  of  Wellington.  Ac- 
customed to  hold  all  his 
marshals  cheap,  he  had  at- 
tributed the  defeats  they  had 
endured  in  the  Peninsula  to 
their  incapacity,  and  not  to 
the  superiority  of  their  op- 
ponents ;  and  it  was  not  till 
the  infantry  had  begun  their 
work,  that  it  began  to  lighten 
on  him  that  he  had  now  to  do 
with  men  of  very  different 
stuff  from  what  he  had  ex- 
pected. "  I  could  never  have 
believed,"  he  said,  "that  the 
English  had  such  fine  troops.'"^ 
Throughout  the  battle,. 
Napoleon  occupied  the  height 
of  La  Belle  Alliance,  where 
he  sat  at  a  table  strewn  with 
maps,  with  his  telescope  in  his 
hand,  Soult  at  his  side,  and 
his  orderlies  behind  him. 
His  eagle  eye  at  once  perceived  the  importance  of  Hougomont  on  the  left,. 
a  rising  piece  of  ground,  occupied  by  a  chateau  and  an  orchard  within  walls, 
which  commanded  the  right  of  the  Allies  ;  and  the  most  desperate  efforts  were 
made  throughout  the  day  to  secure  it.  Had  he  gained  Ithat,  from  it  he  could 
have  pounded  the  right  wing  of  the  English  and  their  allies,  and  have  turned 
the  flank  of  the  army  opposed  to  him. 

The  only  other  position  that  served  as  a  key  was  La  Haye  Sainte,  and  this 
was  taken  after  a  gallant  defence,  but  only  through  the  supply  of  ammunition 
failing  its  defenders.  That  secured,  it  became  of  sovereign  importance  to  the 
French  as  base  for  an  attempt  to  break  the  centre ;  and  on  this  Napoleon  con- 
centrated all  his  efforts. 


NAPOLEON. 

After  Philippoteaux. 


WATERLOO 


499 


The  brilliant  manner  in  which  the  English  resisted  every  attack,  by  pouring 
grape  and  canister  against  the  cavalry  that  advanced  against  them,  then  leaving 
their  battery  and  retiring  into  the  midst  of  squares  which  immediately  formed, 
and  allowed  the  cavalry  of  the  enemy  to  pass  them,  and  to  be  exposed  to 
galling  fire  as  they  did  so,  and  to  face  a  bristling  hedge  of  bayonets  which 
they  could  not  break — this  was  a  novelty  to  Napoleon.  He  had  seen  nothing 
like  it.  He  could  not  believe  that  it  would  succeed  in  the  long  run,  and  again 
and  again  he  alternately  flung  cavalry  against  the  lines  of  the  English  centre, 
and  poured  shot  into  their  squares,  but  only  to  see  the  unshaken  line  contract 


NAl'OLIiON    AT   THE    CLOSE   OF   THE   BATTLE. 
From  a  painting  by  Steuben. 

into  squares,  and  then  the  unbroken  squares  resolve  again  into  line.  For  an 
hour  Ney  continued  to  direct  a  succession  of  attacks  against  the  Allies  in  their 
centre,  but  still  without  succeeding  in  dislodging  or  dismaying  the  indomitable 
squares.  It  was  now  nearly  seven  o'clock  p.m.,  and  the  victory  on  which  the 
French  had  reckoned  so  confidently  in  the  morning,  was  unachieved. 

Meanwhile,  Bliicher  was  approaching  from  Wavre ;  and  Napoleon,  now  at 
last  aware  that  the  Prussians  were  advancing  against  his  right  wing,  was  obliged 
to  direct  his  reserves  to  protect  himself  from  being  out-flanked.  Blucher  found 
the  roads  deep  in  mud.  The  patience  of  the  weary  troops  was  well-nigh  ex- 
hausted. "  We  cannot  go  further,"  they  said.  "  We  must, '  was  Blucher's  reply  ; 
"  I  have  passed  my  word  to  Wellington,  and  you  cannot  make  me  break  it." 
By  six  o'clock  the  Prussian  advanced  body,  under  Bulow,  had  forty-eight  guns 
in  action,  and  a  furious  assault  was  made  on  Planchenois,  to  the  French  right. 


500        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

The  Imperial  Army,  which  at  the  beginning  of  the  battle  had  been  in 
concave  position,  now  became  convex.  Not  a  point  of  the  British  position  had 
been  carried,  save  the  outpost  of  La  Haye  Sainte,  and  not  a  single  square 
had  been  broken.  Hougomont,  though  blazing,  was  maintained  with  unshaken 
stubbornness.  Napoleon's  cavalry  had  been  almost  totally  destroyed  in  the 
desperate  assaults  on  the  centre,  and  his  infantry  columns  had  been  frightfully 
reduced.  Every  portion  of  the  French  army  but  the  Old  Guard  had  been 
engaged,  repulsed,  and  thinned. 

Bonaparte,  sitting  at  his  table,  saw  the  smoke  rise  from  Planchenois,  and 
heard  thence  the  booming  of  the  Prussian  guns.  There  was  for  him  but  one 
chance  left,  and  at  this  he  desperately  caught.  It  was  to  send  his  Guards 
against  the  British  centre  ;  that  broken,  he  would  re-form  along  the  Brussels 
road,  and  make  front  against  the  Prussian  advance. 

With  this  view,  the  Emperor  recalled  several  of  the  battalions  and  batteries 
of  the  Young  Guard  which  had  been  sent  to  Planchenois,  and  eight  battalions 
of  the  Old  Guard  were  arranged  on  the  paved  road  beside  La  Belle  Alliance. 

It  was  a  quarter  past  seven  when  the  first  column  of  the  Old  Guard 
advanced  to  the  attack  ;  there  was  a  temporary  lull  in  the  French  cannonade. 
It  was  evident  to  both  armies  that  within  half  an  hour  the  fate  of  the  day,  nay, 
that  of  Europe,  would  be  decided.  As  soon  as  the  Old  Guard  had  descended 
from  the  heights  of  La  Belle  Alliance,  shouting  "  Vive  I'Empereur ! "  the 
French  batteries  recommenced  their  roar,  but  were  compelled  to  desist  as  soon 
as  the  infantry  began  to  mount  the  rise  held  by  the  English.  The  British 
gunners,  however,  continued  pouring  shot  on  the  advancing  columns,  making 
innumerable  gaps  in  the  ranks  of  their  assailants.  Ney's  horse  was  shot  under 
him,  but  the  gallant  marshal  continued  to  advance  on  foot.  The  Guard  gained 
the  summit  of  the  hill,  and  advanced  towards  that  part  of  the  line  where 
Maitland's  brigade  had  been  ordered  to  lie  down  behind  the  ridge,  in  rear  of 
the  battery  that  crowned  it.  The  Duke  commanded  here  in  person  at  this 
critical  juncture.  Whether  he  gave  the  command  in  those  memorable  words, 
'  Up,  Guards,  and  at  them  ! "  or  in  others  to  the  same  effect,  matters  little : 
the  British  leaped  to  their  feet,  moved  forward  a  few  paces,  and  poured  in 
a  volley  so  close  and  well-directed,  that  nearly  all  of  the  first  two  ranks  of  the 
French  fell. 

Bonaparte  was  not  with  the  Guard  ;  he  had  led  it  in  person  only  to  the  foot 
of  the  Allied  position,  and  then  took  up  a  position  whence  he  could  watch  the 
result.  It  has  been  unreasonably  charged  against  him  that  he  did  not  advance 
with  the  Guard,  but  it  was  more  important  that  he  should  occupy  a  central 
position,  whence  he  could  direct  the  movements  in  every  part  of  the  field, 
especially  as  his  flank  was  menaced  by  the  Prussians.  He  sat  on  his  horse 
rigid  and  fixed  like  a  stone,  watching  the  result. 

At  the  first  volley,  and  the  fall  of  the  front  ranks,  the  Guard  staggered 
some  fell  back,  their  flanks  were  enveloped  by  the  dragoons  on  one  side,  and 
infantry  on  the  other  ;  they  were  mown  down,  and  retired  in  irretrievable  con- 
fusion.    There  was  no  more  fighting ;  the  army  of  Napoleon — the  last  of  all, 


WATERLOO 


503 


and  the  most  desperate  of  all— made  no  further  stand,  or  attempt  to  rally  ;  all 
the  rest  of  the  work  was  headlong,  unresisted  pursuit,  slaughter  of  fugitives, 
and  .capture  of  artillery,  prisoners,  spoils.  The  army  was  destroyed,  as  an 
army,  before  the  pursuit  began  ;  its  last 
semblance  of  cohesion  was  lost  with  the 
defeat  of  the  Guard.  As  the  broken 
Imperial  Guard  reeled  down  the  hill,  inter- 
mingled with  the  British  dragoons  and 
infantry,  who  were  cutting,  bayoneting, 
trampling  them  down,  Bonaparte  became 
livid  as  death,  and  turning  to  the  man 
who  stood  by  him,  said,  "  lis  sont  meles 
ensemble."  There  was  not  a  moment  to 
be  lost,  for  the  English  horsemen,  sweeping 
up  the  side  of  the  hill,  threatened  to 
envelop  and  capture  the  Emperor.  He 
had  ascended  a  small  elevation,  with  the 
Sacred  Guard  surrounding  him,  and  with 
four  pieces  of  cannon,  which  were  worked 
to  the  last.  The  rapid  approach  of  the 
English  and  Prussians,  however,  soon  ren- 
dered this  last  post  untenable.  Turning 
to  Bertrand,  he  said,  "  Tout  a  present  est 
fini !     Sauvons  nous." 

What  must  have  been  the  feelings  of 
Napoleon  as  he  fled?  One  of  his  aides- 
de-camp,  Raoul,  has  described  his  attitude, 
the  last  time  he  was  seen  on  the  field, 
and  the  fascination  he  still  exercised  over 
all  who  were  about  his  person  : — 


# 


0^ 


NAPOLEON  S   REDINGOTi:  KED    HAT. 

From  the  collection  of  Prince  Victor. 


"  He  has  ruined  us — he  has  destroyed 
France  and  himself— yet  I  love  him  still  ; 
it  is  impossible  to  be  near  him  and  not 
love  him.  He  bewitches  all  minds ;  ap- 
proach him  with  a  thousand  prejudices,  and 
you  quit  him  filled  with  admiration.  But 
then,  his  mad  ambition,  his  ruinous  infatua- 
tion, his  obstinacy  without  bounds  !  Besides, 
he  was  wont  to  set  everything  upon  a  cast 
— his  game  was  all  or  nothing.  Even  the  battle  of  Waterloo  might  have  been 
retrieved  had  he  not  charged  with  the  Guard.  This  was  the  reserve  of  the 
army,  and  should  have  been  employed  in  covering  his  retreat  instead  of  attack- 
ing ;  but  with  him,  whenever  matters  looked  desperate,  he  became  like  a  mad 
dog.  He  harangued  the  Guard,  he  put  himself  at  its  head  ;  it  debouched 
rapidly,  and  rushed  upon  the  enemy.  We  were  mown  down  like  grape — we 
wavered — turned  our  backs,  and  the  rout  was  complete.  A  general  disorgani- 
sation  of  the  army  ensued,  and   Napoleon,  relapsing  into  the  stupor  which 


504        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

he  had  shaken  off,  was  cold  as  a  stone.  The  last  time  I  saw  him  was  in 
returning  from  the  charge,  when  all  was  lost.  My  thigh  had  been  broken 
by  a  musket-shot  in  advancing,  and  I  had  been  left  in  the.  rear,  lying  on  the 
ground.  Napoleon  passed  close  by  me  ;  his  nose  was  buried  in  his  snuff-box, 
and  his  bridle  fell  loosely  on  the  neck  of  his  horse,  which  was  pacing  leisurely 
along.  A  Scotch  regiment  was  advancing  at  the  charge  in  the  distance.  The 
Emperor  was  almost  alone.  Lallemand  only  was  with  him.  The  latter  still 
exclaimed,  'AH  is  not  lost,  Sire;  all  is  not  lost!  Rally,  soldiers,  rally!'  The 
Emperor  replied  not  a  word.     Lallemand  recognised  me  in  passing.     '  What 


THE    LITTLE    COCKED    HAT. 
Sketched  from  the  original. 


has  happened  to  you,  Raoul  ? '  '  My  thigh  is  shattered  with  a  musket-ball.' 
'  Poor  devil,  how  I  pity  you !  Adieu !  adieu  I '  The  Emperor  uttered  not 
a  word." 

In  his  flight,  Napoleon  hurried  into  an  orchard  adjoining  the  farm  of  La 
Belle  Alliance.  He  was  there  met  by  two  French  cuirassiers,  who  had  lost 
their  way,  and  who  undertook  to  protect  him.  As  he  rode  away,  he  was 
recognised,  in  spite  of  the  darkness,  but  no  cries  of  "  Vive  I'Empereur ! "  gave 
token  of  love,  of  confidence,  of  courage.  One  said  to  another  in  a  low  tone, 
"  There  goes  the  Emperor  ! "  These  words  appeared  to  him  to  compromise  his 
safety,  and  each  time  he  heard  it  he  spurred  his  horse,  and  galloped  along  the 
road  as  swiftly  as  the  encumbered  condition  of  the  way  would  permit.  Turning 
in  the  direction  of  Philippeville,  he  abandoned  his  army  without  making  an 
effort  to  rally  it.     He  had,  in  fact,  no  corps  that  held  together  to  serve  as 


WATERLOO  505 

a  nucleus  ;  and  he  knew  that  the  French  soldiers,  bold  and  impetuous  when 
they  have  hope  of  victory,  and  are  advancing  against  the  enemy,  are  at  once 
demoralised  by  defeat,  and  that  to  attempt  to  re-form  them  on  the  spot,  and  in 
the  night,  would  inevitably  have  failed. 

On  reaching  Philippeville,  Napoleon  entered  the  place  with  a  very  humble 
retinue,  and  after  a  few  hours'  rest,  took  the  road  to  Paris  by  Rocroi  and 
Mezieres. 

Was  there  a  defect  of  mental  power  and  activity  in  Napoleon  in  the  conduct 
of  this  campaign  ?  This  has  been  put  forward,  to  account  for  the  complete 
collapse ;  because  men  have  been  so  dazzled  with  the  genius  of  Napoleon,  that 
they  have  thought  that  only  so  could  his  failure  be  explained.  That  his 
physical  powers  were  becoming  exhausted,  that  he  had  lost  his  activity,  and 
faculty  of  doing  without  sleep,  and  snatching  a  mouthful  of  food  at  any  time, 
may  be  conceded.  But  when  did  he  exhibit  more  splendid  military  abilities 
than  in  the  preceding  year  ?  And  now  his  plans  of  campaign  were  admirable, 
and  his  conduct  of  the  battle  would  have  ensured  victory,  but  for  one  fatal  error 
into  which  he  had  fallen. 

After  Ligny,  he  had  made  sure  that  Bliicher  would  fall  back  on  Namur. 
He  knew  enough  of  Bliicher  to  be  aware  that,  with  a  man  of  his  moderate 
calibre,  that  would  be  his  first  thought.  So  confident  was  he  that  Bliicher  and 
the  Prussians  had  retired  in  that  direction,  that  he  did  not  take  the  necessary 
precautions  to  verify  his  conviction.  He  threw  out  no  reconnoitring  parties 
along  the  roads  to  Tilly  and  Gembloux.  General  Pajol  was  sent  in  pursuit 
of  the  Prussians,  and  followed  a  body  of  10,000  deserters,  and  some  stragglers 
and  wounded  men  from  Ligny,  who  took  the  Namur  road,  in  the  belief  that 
this  was  the  wreck  of  Bliicher's  army;  and  his  report  confirmed  Napoleon 
in  his  error. 

Meanwhile  the  Prussian  army,  defeated  indeed,  but  not  in  disorder,  was 
retiring  northwards  to  effect  a  junction  with  Wellington,  according  to  an 
arrangement  already  made.  Napoleon,  to  the  last  believing  that  Bliicher  and 
the  main  army  were  at  Namur,  despatched  Grouchy,  with  something  like 
40,000  men,  to  throw  himself  between  the  English  and  the  Prussians,  and 
prevent  the  latter  from  issuing  from  Namur,  whilst  he  fell  on  the  English. 

Thus  it  was  that  Napoleon  failed  ;  less  as  a  tactician  at  Waterloo,  than  as 
a  strategist  in  mistaking  the  whereabouts  of  the  Prussians.  The  arrival  of  the 
latter  at  Planchenois  in  his  rear,  under  Biilow,  was  a  complete  surprise.  When 
first  perceived,  he  supposed  they  were  the  troops  under  Grouchy,  coming  to 
his  aid  ;  and  it  was  not  till  a  Prussian  hussar  was  brought  in  as  a  prisoner^ 
and  despatches  were  found  on  him  from  Biilow  announcing  his  arrival  on  the 
field,  30,000  strong,  and  asking  Wellington's  instruction  as  to  the  disposition  of 
his  men,  that  the  Emperor's  eyes  were  opened. 

But  for  this  error,  which  vitiated  all  his  calculations,  can  it  be  doubted  that 
he  would  have  won  Waterloo  ? 

But  then,  unless  Wellington  had  relied  on  the  assistance  of  the  Prussians^ 
he  would  not  have  made  a  stand  on  Mont  S.  Jean. 


5o6        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

Napoleon  made  mistakes;  but  he  made  them  because  he  was  possessed  with 
the  idea  that  he  need  not  concern  himself  about  the  Prussians.  He  began  the 
battle  late,  but  the  long  summer  day,  and  the  twilight  of  June,  when  there  is 
practically  no  night,  made  this  unimportant.  The  afternoon  had  sufficed  at 
Ligny,  it  would  suffice  at  Waterloo;  and  the  fog  and  wet  of  the  morning  would 
have  embarrassed  his  troops  in  attack  more  than  the  enemy  in  defence.  He 
wasted  his  infantry  in  the  assault  on  Hougomont,  when  he  might  have 
dislodged  the  English  with  his  artillery  ;  but  he  had  no  conception  of  the 
toughness  of  the  English  soldiery,  and  thought  to  have  captured  the  position 
with  a  rush  ;  and,  in  his  absence,  Ney  threw  away  the  cavalry  in  charges  on 
the  English  centre.  Napoleon  had  left  the  field  at  this  time,  with  the  Young 
Guard,  and  was  fighting  a  brilliant  little  battle  at  Planchenois,  which  for  a  time 
effectually  checked  the  Prussian  advance. 

Unquestionably,  Napoleon  calculated,  and  all  past  experience  justified  him 
in  calculating,  on  want  of  unanimity  in  the  plans  of  the  two  generals  opposed 
to  him.  Hitherto  such  combinations  had  told  only  in  his  favour — at  Jena,  and 
in  the  fields  of  Champagne.  But  in  this  instance  rare  unanimity  prevailed 
between  the  impetuous  Bliicher  and  the  cold  Wellington  ;  and  the  former  was 
quite  willing  to  co-operate  with  the  plans  of  the  English  Commander-in-Chief. 

Napoleon  knew  that  the  prime  of  the  English  army  which  had  fought  in 
Spain  was  not  before  him,  but  had  been  shipped  to  America.  He  knew  that 
the  host  opposed  to  him  was  heterogeneous  in  composition,  and  like  the  image 
in  the  vision  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  was  made  up  of  iron,  brass,  and  clay.  He 
had  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  impact  of  his  seasoned  warriors  on  such 
a  body  would  dissolve  its  cohesion,  and  bring  it  to  ruin.  Before  the  tre- 
mendous power  of  his  indomitable  will,  all  opposition  had  hitherto  given  way, 
as  soon  as  he  had  rammed  into  the  centre  of  an  army  drawn  up  before  him, 
and  had  split  it  into  halves.  He  had  no  idea  that  the  commonest  English 
soldier  before  him,  each  atom  that  made  up  the  mass,  was  endowed  with 
almost  as  stubborn  a  will  as  his  own. 

He  had  reckoned  on  the  assistance  of  Grouchy;  and  had  this  marshal  come 
up,  he  would  have  greatly  assisted  him,  but  hardly  have  changed  the  complexion 
of  the  battle.  The  utmost  Grouchy  could  have  done  would  have  been  to  have 
arrested  the  pursuit.  Hitherto  Napoleon  had  never  met  a  general  better  than 
second  rate.  At  Leipzig  he  was  defeated,  not  by  superior  generalship,  but  by 
superior  numbers.  At  Waterloo,  for  the  first  time,  he  encountered  a  man  intel- 
lectually his  match,  and  one  leading  the  core  of  an  army  accustomed,  not  to 
defeat,  but  to  victory ;  a  man  of  peculiarly  cold  temperament.  When  a  duel 
is  fought  between  two  opponents — one  short  of  temper,  the  other  impassibly 
cool — the  first  is  invariably  worsted  after  the  first  round,  when  he  has  felt 
the  first  smart ;  and  in  the  battle-field,  the  same  rule  holds  good  respecting 
generals. 


DRAWING    TO    THE    END. 
From  a  picture  by  Flameng. 


LIII 


THE    SECOND    ABDICATION 


(21  June— 23  July,  181 5) 


THE  huge  black  arms  of  the  telegraph,  writhing  on  the  tops  of  church 
towers  against  the  grey  morning  sky,  had  informed  the  Parisians  of  the 
victory  of  Ligny,  on  the  morning  of  the  16th  June.  The  Prussians  had  been 
shattered,  and  were  flying.  All  Paris  held  its  breath,  waiting  to  hear  of  the 
destruction  of  the  English  host.  The  great  arms  hung  limp  ;  but  yet  on  the 
19th,  in  the  morning,  sinister  rumours,  springing  up  none  knew  whence 
circulated  in  the  capital  that  a  great  battle  had  been  fought  near  Mont  S.  Jean 
and  that  the  Army  of  the  Empire  had  been  annihilated.  These  reports  flew 
about,  were  believed  one  moment,  disbelieved  the  next,  and  the  funds  went 
up  and  down  like  waves  in  a  storm. 

At  four  o'clock  in  the  jnorning  of  the  21st,  Napoleon  arrived  in  Paris,  and 
alighted  at  the  Elysee  Bourbon.  He  sent  immediately  for  Caulaincourt,  and,  whilst 
admitting  the  disaster,  characteristically — on  this  occasion,  not  without  some 
justification — cast  all  the  blame  for  it  on  another.  "  The  army,"  he  said,  "  has 
performed  wonders;  but  a  sudden  panic  seized  it,  and  all  has  been  lost.  Ney 
■conducted  himself  like  a  madman  ;  he  caused  my  cavalry  to  be  massacred.     I 

507 


5o8        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

can  do  no  more.     I  must  have  two  hours  of  repose  and  a  warm  bath  before  I 
can  attend  to  business." 

One  of  the  first  pubHc  men  to  see  him  on  his  return  was  Lavallette. 

"  I  flew/'  says  he,  "  to  the  Elysee  to  see  the  Emperor.  He  summoned  me 
into  his  closet,  and,  as  soon  as  he  saw  me,  he  came  to  meet  me  with  a  frightful 
epileptic  laugh.  '  O  my  God  !'  he  said,  raising  his  eyes  to  heaven,  and  walking 
two  or  three  times  up  and  down  the  room.  This  appearance  of  despair  was,. 
however,  of  short  duration.  He  soon  recovered  his  coolness,  and  asked  me 
what  was  going  forward  in  the  Chamber  of  Representatives.  I  could  not 
attempt  to  hide  that  party  spirit  was  there  carried^  to  a  high  pitch,  and  that  the 
majority  seemed  determined  to  require  his  abdication,  and  to  pronounce  it 
themselves,  if  he  did  not  concede  willingly.  'How  is  that?'  he  said.  'If 
proper  measures  are  not  taken,  the  enemy  will  be  before  the  gates  of  Paris  in 
eight  days.  Alas  ! '  he  added,  '  have  I  accustomed  them  to  such  great  victories, 
that  they  know  not  how  to  bear  one  day's  misfortune  ?  What  will  become  of 
poor  France  ?  I  have  done  all  I  could  for  her.'  He  then  heaved  a  deep  sigh. 
Somebody  asked  to  speak  to  him,  and  I  left  him,  with  a  direction  from  him  to 
return  at  a  later  hour." 

During  the  day  numerous  fugitives  from  Waterloo  arrived  in  Paris,  and  the 
agitation,  the  alarm,  became  general.  The  officers  who  had  escaped,  and 
returned,  entered  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  declared  that  the  rout  was  sa 
complete  that  no  thought  of  a  rally  could  be  entertained.  Then  Carnot  and 
Lucien  Bonaparte  proposed  that  a  Dictatorship  should  be  conferred  on 
Napoleon  ;  but  Fouche,  Lafayette,  and  others  of  the  Constitutional  Party^ 
entered  into  a  coalition,  the  object  of  which  was  to  invest  the  National 
Assembly  with  absolute  sovereignty,  and  to  demand  the  abdication  of  the 
Emperor. 

"  The  House  of  Representatives,"  said  Lafayette,  "  declares  that  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  nation  is  menaced.  The  Chamber  declares  its  sitting  perma- 
nent.    Every  attempt  to  dissolve  it  is  declared  high  treason." 

This  resolution,  which  at  once  destroyed  the  Emperor's  authority,  was 
carried  by  acclamation.  Lucien  started  up,  and  denounced  Lafayette  for  his 
ingratitude  to  Napoleon. 

"You  accuse  me  of  lack  of  gratitude  towards  him  !  "  exclaimed  Lafayette. 
"  Have  you  forgotten  that  the  bones  of  our  children,  of  our  brothers,  everywhere- 
attest  our  fidelity — in  the  sands  of  Africa,  on  the  banks  of  the  Guadalquivir  and 
the  Tagus,  on  those  of  the  Vistula,  and  on  the  frozen  deserts  of  Muscovy? 
During  more  than  ten  years,  three  millions  of  Frenchmen  have  perished  for  a 
man  who  wishes  still  to  fight  all  Europe.  We  have  done  enough  for  him.  Now 
our  duty  is  to  save  the  country." 

Cries  of  "  Let  him  abdicate  !  let  him  abdicate  !  "  rang  from  the  benches,  and 
the  National  Guards  ranged  themselves  round  the  Hall  of  Assembly,  on  the 
side  of  the  Deputies,  against  any  armed  attempt  on  the  part  of  Napoleon  to 
disperse  them  and  close  the  doors. 

The  House  of  Peers  lagged  a  little  behind  that  of  the  Representatives,- but 
not  for  long.     The  Peers,  though  all  Bonapartists,  concurred  with  the  Deputies 


THE   SECOND   ABDICATION 


509 


in  believing  that  one  man  alone  stood  between  France  and  peace,  that  further 
resistance  would  but  prolong  the  death-agony  of  the  Empire,  and  that  ^the 


"vivE  l'empereur  !" 
From  a  crayon  drawing  by  Willette. 


surest  method  of  preventing  further  disaster  was  to  dethrone  Napoleon  ;  but 
many  of  them,  as  well  as  a  party  among  the  Representatives,  were  in  favour 
of  declaring  the  little  King  of  Rome  Emperor  of  the  French,  with  his  mother 


5IO        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

as  Regent.  Lucien,  Labedoyere,  Carnot,  Davoust,  strongly  supported  this 
project.  Davoust,  as  War  Minister,  protested  that  the  military  power  of  the 
nation  had  received  a  rude  shock,  but  was  by  no  means  fatally  stricken^ 
But  here  Ney,  who  had  just  arrived,  full  of  rage  and  despair,  interrupted 
Carnot,  who  was  arguing  that  France  could  maint  in  h  truggle  against 
Wellington,  crippled  at  Waterloo,  and  Bliicher,  defeated  at  Ligny.  Ney 
violently  interposed,  "  It  is  false !  you  are  deceiving  the  Peers  and  the 
people.  Wellington  is  advancing,  Bliicher  is  not  defeated.  There  is  nothing 
left  but  the  corps  of  Grouchy.  In  six  or  seven  days  the  enemy  will  be 
here ! " 

Meanwhile  Napoleon  had  sent  for  Benjamin  Constant,  who  found  the 
Emperor  calm.  In  reply  to  some  words  on  the  disaster  of  Waterloo,  Napoleon 
said,  "  The  question  no  longer  concerns  me,  but  France.  They  wish  me  to 
abdicate.  Have  they  calculated  upon  the  inevitable  consequences  of  an  abdica- 
tion? It  is  round  me,  round  my  name,  that  the  army  rallies.  To  separate 
me  from  it  is  to  disband  it.  If  I  abdicate  to-day,  in  two  days'  time  you  will  no 
longer  have  an  army.  These  poor  fellows  do  not  understand  your  subtleties. 
Is  it  supposed  that  axioms  in  metaphysics,  declarations  of  rights,  and  harangues 
from  the  Tribune,  will  put  a  stop  to  the  disbanding  of  the  army  ?  It  is  not 
when  the  enemy  is  at  twenty-five  leagues'  distance  that  a  Government  can  be 
overturned  with  impunity."  Then  he  began  to  threaten  that  he  would  dissolve 
the  Assembly,  and  he  denied  its  competence  to  demand  his  abdication.  But  he 
had  no  force  at  his  back  to  execute  his  threats. 

Whilst  thus  talking,  he  heard  shouts  of  "Vive  I'Empereur ! "  and  going  to  the 
window  saw  a  crowd  of  men  of  the  labouring  class,  pressing  forward  along  the 
Avenue,  trying  to  escalade  the  walls,  that  they  might  offer  their  services.  He 
looked  attentively  at  the  rabble  for  a  while,  and  then  said,  "You  see,  these 
are  not  the  men  whom  I  loaded  with  honours  and  wealth.  What  do  these 
people  owe  me  ?  The  instinct  of  necessity  enlightens  them.  The  voice  of  the 
country  speaks  through  their  mouths.  If  I  choose,  in  another  hour  the  re- 
fractory Chambers  would  cease  to  exist.  But  the  life  of  a  man  is  not  worth 
purchasing  at  such  a  price." 

He  did  not  relish  the  idea  of  flight  from  Paris.  "  Why  should  I  not  remain 
here  ?  "  he  asked  of  Constant.  "  What  do  you  suppose  they  would  do  to  an  un- 
armed man  like  me  ?  I  will  go  to  Malmaison  ;  I  can  live  there  in  retirement 
with  some  friends." 

He  next  rambled  away  into  a  description  of  the  country  life  he  would  enjoy; 
planting  cabbages  ;  and  then  reverted  suddenly  to  the  thought  of  flight.  "  If 
they  do  not  like  me  to  remain  in  France,  whither  am  I  to  go  ?  To  England  ? 
My  abode  there  would  be  irksome  and  absurd.  I  would  be  tranquil,  but  no  one 
would  give  me  credit  for  that.  Every  fog  would  be  suspected  of  favouring  an 
attempt  at  disembarkation  on  the  French  coast  .  .  .  America  would  be  more 
suitable ;  I  could  live  there  with  dignity.  But  once  more.  What  is  there  to  fear?" 
What  sovereign  can  persecute  me  without  injury  to  himself?  To  one  I  have 
restored  half  his  dominions ;  how  often  has  a]  second  pressed  my  hand,  and 


"  mo\sip:ur  carnot,  je  vous  ai  connu  tkop  tard. 

From  a  sketch  by  Forraln. 


On  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  Rochefort,  Carnot  visited  Napoleon  at  Malmaison.      The  tears  rose  in  his  eyes. 
The  fallen  Emperor  advanced  towards  him  with  extended  hand  and  the  words  as  given  above. 


or 


S^^ 


THe 


^NlVERs,^ 


OF 


^FORNJ^ 


THE    SECOND   ABDICATION 


513 


called  me  a  great  man.  As  to  the  third,  can  he  find  gratification  in  the 
humiliation  of  his  son-in-law  ?  " 

Lucien  arrived  with  a  deputation  from  the  Chambers.  He  found  his  brother 
in  an  unsettled  condition  of  mind,  at  one  moment  threatening  to  dissolve  the 
Chambers  by  military  force,  at  others  to  blow  out  his  brains.  Lucien  openly 
told  him  that  there  was  no  alternative  but  to  dismiss  the  Assembly  and  seize 
the  supreme  power  or  to  abdicate. 

"  The  Chamber,"  said  Napoleon,  "  is  composed  of  Jacobins,  of  madmen,  who 


EMBARKATION    ON    BOARD   THE        BELLEROPHON. 
From  a  contemporary  engraving. 


wish  for  power  and  disorder ;  I  should  have  denounced  them  to  the  nation,  and 
chased  them  from  their  seats.     Dethrone  me !     They  would  not  dare." 

"In  an  hour,"  replied  Regnaud  de  S.  Angely,  "your  dethronement,  on 
the  motion  of  Lafayette,  will  be  irrevocably  pronounced.  They  have 
given  you  an  hour's  grace — do  you  hear?  Only  an  hour."  Napoleon  turned 
with  a  bitter  smile  to  Fouche,  and  said,  "  Write  to  these  Messieurs  to  keep  them- 
selves quiet — they  shall  be  satisfied."  He  then  drew  up  a  declaration  of  abdica- 
tion in  favour  of  his  son. 

"Frenchmen!  In  commencing  war  for  the  maintenance  of  national  inde- 
pendence, I  relied  on  the  union  of  all  efforts,  all  wills,  and  the  concurrence 
of  all  the  national  authorities.  I  had  reason  to  hope  for  success,  and  I  braved 
the   declarations   of   the    Powers   against   me.     Circumstances   appear    to    be 

2  L 


514        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

changed.  I  offer  myself  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  hatred  of  the  foes  of  France.  .  .  . 
My  poHtical  Hfe  is  ended.  I  proclaim  my  son  under  the  title  of  NAPOLEON  II., 
Emperor  of  the  French.  The  present  ministers  will  provisionally  form  the 
Council  of  the   Government.     The  interest   I   take  in  my  son  induces  me  to 


NAPOLEON    ON    THE    "  BELLEROPHON. 
From  a  drawing  by  J.  Eastlake,  engraved  by  C.  Turner. 


invite  the  Chambers  to  form  the  Regency  without  delay.     Unite  for  the  public 
safety,  that  you  may  continue  an  independent  people." 

This  declaration  was  conveyed  to  both  the  Chambers,  which  accepted  the 
abdication,  but  eluded  acceptance  of  the  nomination  of  his  son. 


THE   SECOND    ABDICATION  515 

Lucien  and  Davoust  had  urged  on  Napoleon  to  continue  the  struggle,  but 
the  Emperor  saw  that  this  was  impossible.  In  Paris  he  had  no  troops  at  the 
head  of  which  he  could  place  himself,  silence  the  Deputies,  and  send  them 
flying  out  of  the  windows,  as  on  the  i8th  Brumaire.  He  had  a  much  livelier 
sense  than  Lucien  could  have  of  the  extent  of  the  recent  disaster  on  the  field  of 
Waterloo,  and  he  knew  that,  though  he  could  collect  another  army,  all  the 
power  of  Europe  was  focussed  against  him.  Whilst  Wellington  and  Blucher 
were  approaching  from  the  north-east,  the  Austrian  general,  Frimont,  was 
marching  through  Switzerland  and  Savoy  to  attack  on  that  frontier,  Schwarzen- 
berg  was  now  ready  to  pour  enormous  forces  across  the  Rhine,  and  the  Czar 
was  not  far  off  with  200,000  Russians.  The  Allies  could  put  800,000 
men  into  France  before  the  end  of  July. 

Next  day,  Lavallette  was  with  the  fallen  Emperor,  and  gave  him  full  and 
impartial  particulars  relative  to  the  state  of  feeling  in  the  metropolis.  He 
says  : — 

Napoleon  "  listened  to  me  with  a  sombre  air,  and  though  he  was  in  some 
measure  master  of  himself,  the  agitation  of  his  mind  and  the  sense  of  his  posi- 
tion betrayed  themselves  in  his  face  and  all  his  motions.  .  .  .  The  great  act  of 
abdication  accomplished,  he  remained  calm  during  the  whole  day,  giving  his 
advice  on  the  position  the  army  should  take,  and  on  the  manner  in  which  the 
negotiations  with  the  enemy  ought  to  be  conducted.  He  insisted  especially  on 
the  necessity  of  proclaiming  his  son  Emperor,  not  so  much  for  the  advantage  of 
the  child,  as  with  a  view. of  concentrating  on  one  head  the  national  sentiment 
and  affection.     Unfortunately,  nobody  would  listen  to  him." 

On  the  23rd,  Napoleon  went  to  Malmaison,  where  poor  Josephine  had  died; 
and  there  he  made  preparations  for  flight. 

On  the  29th,  General  Becker,  sent  by  the  Provisional  Government,  arrived  to 
attend  and  watch  Napoleon.  The  fallen  Emperor  sent  him  back  at  once,  with 
a  message  to  the  Provisional  Government,  offering  to  march  as  a  private  citizen 
against  BlUcher.  Upon  the  refusal  of  the  Ministry  to  entertain  such  a  suggestion, 
he  quitted  Malmaison,  and  hastened  to  Rochefort  with  the  intention  of  escaping 
to  America.  But  the  whole  west  coast  of  France  was  watched  by  a  blockading 
fleet ;  and  finding  it  impossible  to  leave  France  unobserved,  and  learning  that 
orders  for  his  arrest  had  been  issued,  and  their  execution  delayed  only  to  allow 
him  to  throw  himself  on  the  mercy  of  the  English,  nothing  remained  for  him 
but  to  surrender  to  Captain  Maitland,  of  the  Bellerophon,  anchored  in  the 
Basque  Roads;  and  this  he  did  on  the  15th  July.  "  I  am  come,"  said  Napoleon, 
^'  to  cast  myself  on  the  protection  of  the  laws  of  England."  But  already  he  had 
been  informed  by  Captain  Maitland  "  that  he  could  enter  into  no  promise  as  to 
the  reception  he  might  meet  with  in  England,  as  he  was  in  total  ignorance  of 
the  intentions  of  the  British  Government  as  to  his  future  disposal."  And 
Admiral  Keith,  in  command  of  the  fleet,  would  give  him  no  assurances. 

On  the  23rd  July,  for  the  last  time  the  eyes  of  the  fallen  Emperor  saw  the 
<:oast  of  France,  as  the  Bellerophon,  with  all  sail  set,  stood  out  to  sea,  for 
England. 


NAPOLEON    ON    S.    HELENA. 
From  a  contemporary  body-colour  painting. 


LIV 
S.   HELENA 


'^/TAPOLEON,  whose  imagination  never  failed  to  present  flattering  images 
"*-  ^  to  his  soul,  had  formed  the  idea  that,  on  going  to  England,  he  would 
receive  an  ovation.  In  1814,  Lord  Castlereagh  had  sent  a  communication  to 
him  through  the  Duke  of  Vicenza,  during  the  negotiations  at  Fontainebleau,  in 
which  he  asked  : — 

"  Why  does  not  Napoleon,  instead  of  going  to  Elba,  come  to  England  ?  He 
will  be  received  in  London  with  the  greatest  consideration,  and  he  will  obtain 
there  a  treatment  infinitely  preferable  to  exile  on  a  wretched  rock  in  the 
Mediterranean.  He  should  not,  however,  make  his  retirement  into  England 
the  object  of  a  negotiation,  for  that  would  entail  too  many  delays,  and  provoke 
difficulties.  But  let  him  surrender  himself  without  conditions  ;  let  him  render 
this  homage  of  esteem  to  an  enemy  which  has  bravely  fought  against  him 
during  ten  years.  He  will  be  received  in  England  with  the  profoundest  respect, 
and  he  will  learn  that  it  is  better  worth  his  while  to  rely  on  English  honour 
than  on  a  treaty  signed  in  the  midst  of  circumstances  such  as  at  present 
exist." 

516 


S.    HELENA  517 

But  what  might  have  happened  in  18 14  was  impossible  in  181 5.  Europe 
had  seen  him  break  his  engagement  to  remain  in  Elba,  and  his  return  to  France 
had  revealed  that  he  still  had  the  power  to  rouse  the  nation,  and  to  collect 
around  him  an  army  which  was  a  menace  to  every  nation  composing  Europe. 
He  had  played  a  desperate  game,  and  had  lost.  But  Napoleon  could  never  be 
brought  to  understand  that  he  must  take  the  consequences  of  his  acts  ;  that 
having  been  the  scourge  of  Europe,  cost  it  untold  misery,  brought  bereavement 
and  ruin  into  tens  of  thousands  of  families,  and  soaked  the  soil  with  blood — 
that  he  must  be  kept  under  control  like  a  wild  beast,  and  suffer  an  infinitesimal 
part  of  the  misery  he  had  caused  to  others. 

On  the  26th  July,  in  the  evening,  the  Bellerophon  entered  the  bay  of  Ply- 
mouth. After  remaining  a  fortnight  there,  during  which  he  was  the  object  of 
the  most  flattering  curiosity  from  all  who  could  obtain  a  glimpse  of  him,  he  was 
removed  on  board  the  Northumberland,  with  orders  to  be  conveyed  to  S.  Helena, 
the  place  of  all  others  he  most  dreaded.  It  was  specified  that  he  would  be 
allowed  to  take  with  him  three  officers,  his  surgeon,  and  twelve  servants. 

Suspicion  seems  to  have  arisen  that  he  would  commit  suicide,  or  that 
Generals  Montholon  and  Gourgaud  would  kill  him  at  his  request,  as  he  was 
heard  repeatedly  to  declare,  "  I  will  not  go  to  S.  Helena"  ;  and  he  was  accord- 
ingly closely  watched,  and  the  generals  warned  that  they  would  be  tried  for 
murder,  if  they  assisted  or  connived  at  his  death. 

Angry,  disappointed  wretched.  Napoleon  indited  a  protest,  which  he  ordered 
should  be  sent  to  the  British  Ministry. 

"  I  hereby  solemnly  protest,  before  God  and  man,  against  the  injustice 
offered  me,  and  the  violation  of  my  most  sacred  rights,  in  forcibly  disposing  of 
my  person  and  liberty.  I  came  freely  on  board  the  Bellerophon ;  I  am  not  a 
prisoner,  I  am  the  guest  of  England.  1  was,  indeed,  instigated  to  come  on 
board  by  the  captain,  who  told  me  that  he  had  been  directed  by  his  Government 
to  receive  me  and  my  suite,  and  conduct  me  to  England,  if  agreeable  to  my 
wishes.*  1  presented  myself  in  good  faith,  with  the  view  of  claiming  the  pro- 
tection of  the  English  laws.  As  soon  as  I  had  reached  the  Bellerophon,  I 
considered  myself  in  the  home  and  on  the  hearth  of  the  British  people.  If  it 
was  the  intention  of  the  Government,  in  giving  orders  to  the  captain  of  the 
Bellerophon,  to  receive  me  and  my  suite  merely  to  entrap  me,  it  has  forfeited  its 
honour  and  sullied  its  flag. 

"  If  this  act  be  consummated,  it  will  be  useless  for  the  English  to  talk  to 
Europe  of  their  integrity,  their  laws,  and  their  liberty.  British  good  faith  will 
have  been  lost  in  the  hospitality  of  the  Bellerophon. 

"  I  appeal  to  history ;  it  will  say  that  an  enemy,  who  made  war  for  twenty 
years  upon  the  English  people,  came  voluntarily  (!)  in  his  misfortune  to  seek  an 
asylum  under  their  laws.  What  more  striking  proof  could  he  give  of  his 
esteem  and  his  confidence  ?  But  what  return  did  England  make  for  so  magnani- 
mous (!)  an  act?  They  pretended  to  hold  out  a  friendly  hand  to  this  enemy  ;  and 
when  he  delivered  himself  up  in  good  faith,  they  sacrificed  him. 

(Signed)         "  NAPOLEON. 
"On  board  the  Bellerophon,  4th  August,  181 5." 

*  An  untruth.     He  was  in  no  way  instigated  to  do  this  by  Captain  Maitland. 


5i8        THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

This  was  a  misrepresentation  from  beginning  to  end.  The  order  for  his 
arrest  and  imprisonment  had  arrived  in  Rochefort,  and  he  was  obliged  to 
surrender  to  Captain  Maitland.  What  he  had  dealt  to  others,  it  was  right  that 
he  should,  in  a  measure,  himself  endure.    He  had  treated  Toussaint  I'Ouverture 


NAPOLEON   AT   LONGWOOD. 
From  a  sketch  by  General  Gourgaud. 

with  barbarity  ;  this  brave  man  had  been  lured  to  surrender  with  promises  of 
generous  treatment,  and  then  had  been  sent  to  perish  in  the  cold  of  an  Alpine 
prison.  Hofer  had  been  shot  for  fighting  for  his  country ;  the  Due  d'Enghien 
taken  from  neutral  ground  to  be  assassinated. 

The  English  Government  was  forced  to  deal  in  an  exceptional  manner  with 
a  man  who  did  not  value  his  word.     If  he  had  to  be  banished  far  from  Europe, 


U 


S.   HELENA 


519 


he  had  but  himself  to  blame  for  it.  Proximity  to  Europe  would  have  been  a 
continual  menace.  By  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons,  the  Allied  Powers  put 
a  fool's  cap  on  France,  and  that  proud  nation  could  not,  and  would  not,  long 
endure  the  insult.  It  would  enter  into  correspondence  with  the  man  who,  if  he 
had  tyrannised  over  her,  had  made  her  respected.  His  name  was  still  one  to 
conjure  with,  his  person  still  one  that  would  be  a  rallying-point.  England  was 
responsible  to  her  Allies  to  place  him  where  he  could  no  longer  be  dangerous. 
Generosity  had  been  shown  him  when  allowed  to  retire  to  Elba.  It  was  true 
that  the  Bourbons  had  not  at  once  paid  him  what  was  stipulated  ;  perhaps  he 
gave  them  no  time;  he  was  back  before  they  had  the  money  in  their  hands 
wherewith  to  discharge  their 
debts.  As  generosity  had  failed, 
severity  must  be  employed. 

A  great  man,  a  noble  charac- 
ter, bears  his  fall  with  dignity, 
wraps  his  mantle  about  his  face, 
and  suffers  in  silence.  But  this 
was  not  what  Napoleon  could 
do.  The  rest  of  his  story  is 
one  of  peevish  discontent,  of 
grumbling  because  he  had  a 
bottle  too  few,  or  because  his 
wine  was  not  to  his  taste,  or 
because  he  was  not  addressed 
as  "  Sire,"  and  was  not  allowed 
to  ride  wherever  he  liked.  It 
was  absurd  for  him  to  contend 
that  he  was  a  guest.  A  soldier  in  war  who  delivers  up  his  sword  becomes 
a  prisoner,  and  not  a  guest.  He  obtains  the  right  to  live,  but  not  to  be 
allowed  to  go  where  he  likes.  The  story  of  Napoleon  begins  with  fretfulness, 
and  with  fretfulness  it  ends.  In  his  private  life  there  was  no  greatness,  no 
dignity ;  and  when  the  Imperial  ermine  and  the  wreath  of  gilded  laurel  leaves 
were  removed, — nay,  when  he  lost  his  cocked  hat  and  grey  overcoat — then  there 
remained  behind  nothing  but  the  mean  egoist. 

After  a  voyage  of  seventy  days.  Napoleon  disembarked  at  Jamestown,  in  S. 
Helena,  attended  by  Count  Las  Cases  and  his  son.  General  Gourgaud,  the  Count 
and  Countess  Bertrand,  the  Count  and  Countess  Montholon,  and  ten  servants. 

"  All  the  descriptions  of  S.  Helena  that  I  had  ever  read,"  says  the  author  of 
the  Captivite  de  Sainte-Helene,  "  before  reaching  the  place,  had  given  me  but  an 
imperfect  idea  of  the  island.  It  is  the  most  isolated  spot  in  the  world,  the  most 
inaccessible,  the  most  difficult  to  attack,  the  poorest,  the  most  unsociable,  and 
the  most  expensive.  Its  appearance  is  frightening,  and  I  do  not  conceal  the  fact 
that  when,  on  the  17th,  in  the  morning,  they  came  into  my  cabin  to  announce  to 
me  that  we  had  reached  S.  Helena,  the  first  sight  of  it  made  me  sick  at  heart."  * 

*  This  book  was  written  by  G.  F.  Didot,  from  the  reports  of  the  Baron  de  Montchenu,  Commissary 
for  Louis  XVIII.  in  the  island. 


-  ■■/Jlj^J 

Wk^ 

%k'^^'\f         ^**'^M 

W^ 

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!!^^: 

R\ti      '^'iS 

^S^     ! 

■i^JBilii..              ^^^^^ 

M'-  -"s^ 

&t 

IHH^hl.                   ' ' '.tilS^ 

W'^^r 

t^S^^  ■■^"  ^^^B 

mlp: 

HH|^^^^^^ 

\ 

NAPOLEON   GARDENING. 
From  an  anonymous  engraving. 


520        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


"  The  island  of  S.  Helena,"  says  Montholon,  "  is  2,000  leagues  from  Europe, 
and  900  from  every  continent,  and  1,200  leagues  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 
It  is  a  volcanic  eruption  in  the  midst  of  the  Atlantic.  .  .  .  The  soil  of  the 
island  is  composed  of  chilled  lava,  which  was  in  various  conditions  of  fusion 
when  erupted,  and  is  traversed  by  profound  ravines.  The  vegetable  earth  is 
found  only  where  it  has  been  carried  by  the  hands  of  man.  .  .  .  Everywhere 
lava  dykes  descend  from  the  central  plateau  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and  this 
gives  to  S.  Helena,  seen  from  afar,  the  aspect  of  a  shapeless  mass  of  black  rocks, 

surmounted  by  a  cone  with 
blunted  top.  The  nearer  one 
approaches,  the  more  repulsive 
it  seems.  From  whatever  side, 
wherever  the  eye  turns,  nothing 
is  to  be  seen  but  bastion  and 
black  walls,  constructed  as  by 
the  hands  of  demons  to  link 
together  the  rocky  peaks.  No- 
where a  trace  of  vegetation.  .  .  . 
A  wall,  an  arched  gate,  hide 
the  town.  At  the  time  of  our 
entry  into  S.  Helena  the  popu- 
lation consisted  of  about  500 
whites,  including  a  battalion 
of  infantry  of  160  men,  and 
a  company  of  artillery  in  the 
service  of  the  East  India 
Company.  There  were  about 
300  blacks.  The  population  in 
1 82 1  consisted  of  800  whites, 
308  negroes,  1,800  Chinese,  or 
Lascars." 

English  officers'  wives,  deli- 
cate ladies,  lived  there  because 
it  was  their  duty ;  but  the  fallen 
Emperor  complained   because 
he  was  sent  there  to  an  exile 
which  he  had  richly  deserved. 
"  Dying    on    this    hideous 
rock,"  said  he,  *'  separated  from 
my  family,  lacking  everything,  I  bequeath  the  opprobrium  and  the  horror  of 
my  death  to  the  English." 

On  first  arriving  at  S.  Helena,  nothing  was  ready  for  the  illustrious  exile, 
and  he  was  lodged  at  a  house  near  the  town,  called  "  The  Briars."  The  place 
was  not  one  in  which  luxurious  furniture  and  delicacies  for  the  table  were  to  be 
called  up  by  enchantment.  Six  weeks  elapsed  before  Longwood,  the  residence 
that  was  constructed  for  him,  was  complete,  but  all  the  furniture  had  to  be 
brought  from  England. 

Napoleon  moved  to  Longwood  on  the  loth  of  December,  18 15.  Las  Cases 
thus  described  the  situation  : — 


r 

i 

^  m.*> ' '  i^B 

'  „fBi 

. 

''>':< 

^^^P          1 

■/' 

/  ^•■ 

1 

S^^"^^nrzzni:nj^lg  g^ 

■'^'•^w^^^H 

1 

Ijmm 

liliiriHl 

iHi' 

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■jF 

i 

MJ 

■ 

■ 

IHbi 

mA 

Hi 

1 

THE    EXILE. 

From  a  water-colour  sketch  made  by  an  English  officer  at  Longwood, 
24th  July,  1820. 


S.    HELENA 


21 


"  Longwood,  originally  a  farm  belonging  to  the  East  India  Company,  and 
afterwards  given  as  a  country  residence  to  the  Deputy-Governor,  is  situated 
on  one  of  the  highest  parts  of  the  island.  The  difference  between  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  place  and  the  valley  below  is  very  great.  It  stands  on  a  plateau 
of  some  extent,  and  near  the  eastern  coast.  Continual,  and  often  violent, 
winds  blow  regularly  from  the  same  quarter.  The  sun,  though  rarely  seen, 
nevertheless  exercises  its  influence  on  the  atmosphere,  which  is  apt  to  produce 
disorders  of  the  liver.  Heavy  and  sudden  falls  of  rain  inundate  the  ground, 
and  there  is  no  settled  course  of  the  seasons.  The  sun  passes  overhead  twice 
a  year.  Notwithstanding  the 
abundant  rains,  the  grass  is 
either  nipped  by  the  wind  or 
parched  by  the  heat.  The 
water,  which  is  conveyed  to 
Longwood  by  pipes,  is  so  un- 
wholesome as  to  be  unfit  for 
use  till  it  has  been  boiled. 
The  trees,  which  at  a  distance 
impart  a  smiling  aspect  to 
the  country,  are  merely  gum 
trees,  a  wretched  kind  of  shrub, 
affording  no  shade.  On  one 
hand  the  horizon  is  bounded 
by  the  ocean,  but  the  rest  of 
the  scene  presents  only  a  mass 
of  huge  barren  rocks,  deep 
gulfs,  and  desolate  valleys ; 
and  in  the  distance  appears 
the  green  and  misty  chain  of 
mountains,  above  which  towers 
Diana's  Peak.  In  short.  Long- 
wood  can  be  agreeable  only  to 
the  traveller  after  the  fatigues 
of  a  long  voyage,  to  whom 
the  sight  of  any  country  is  a 
relief" 

The  entrance  to  the  house 
was  through  a  room  which  had 
just  been  added,  to  serve  the 
double  purpose  of  an  ante- 
chamber   and    a    dining-room. 

apartment,  and  was  divided  into  a  cabinet  and  a  sleeping-room, 
room  was  added. 

Riding-horses  were  at  the  command  of  the  ex-Emperor  ;  he  had  his  little 
Court,  which  was  organised  into  petty  state.  Champagne  and  Burgundy 
were  provided  as  his  daily  beverage.  The  furniture  was  not  at  first  excellent, 
as  none  of  superior  quality  existed  on  the  island,  but  by  degrees  he  was 
supplied  with  articles  that  were  handsome. 

Vessels  to  India  and  the  Cape,  or  returning  from  thence,  arrived  continually 
at  S.  Helena,  and  Napoleon  was  somewhat  annoyed  by  the  curiosity  of  visitors  ; 


NAPOLEON    ON    S.    HELENA. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Horace  Vernet. 

The    Emperor's    chamber    opened    into    this 

A  little  bath- 


522        THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

but  sentinels  were  provided,  and  posted  under  his  windows  and  before  the  door, 
to  prevent  vulgar  intrusion. 

On  the  14th  of  April,  1816,  Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  the  new  Governor,  arrived  at 
S.  Helena.  The  selection  was  an  unhappy  one,  owing'jto  the  manner  of  the 
Governor  being  harsh  and  wanting  in  courtesy.  But,  on  first  introduction, 
Bonaparte  insulted  the  gallant  officer  by  calling  him  a  commander  of  Brigands, 
because  he  had  held  the  command  of  the  Corsican  Rangers  in  the  British  service. 
The  great  cause  of  irritation  was  that  neither  Sir  Hudson  Lowe  nor  his 
predecessor.  Sir  George  Cockburn,  would  address  Napoleon  as  "  His  Imperial 
Majesty,"  because  the  Home  Government  had  given]  orders  that  he  should  re- 
ceive the  honours  of  a  general  only. 

It  is  possible  enough  that  Napoleon  would  have  got  on  with  the  Governor, 
if  left  to  himself,  but  he  was  surrounded  by  the  Las  Cases,  the  Montholons,  and 
the  Bertrands,  and  the  women,  who  were  the  most  provoking  set  of  babblers, 
quarrel-makers,  and  tale-bearers,  that  it  ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  man  to  encounter. 
These  Frenchmen,  and,  above  all,  their  wives,  fretted  at  being  detained  on 
an  island  in  the  Atlantic,  where  there  were  no  theatres,  and  no  bals  masques. 
Away  from  the  amusements  and  gossip  of  Paris,  they  were  incessantly  on  the 
look-out  for  grievances,  and  nothing  was  too  trivial  for  them  to  take  up.  They 
identified  themselves  with  what  could  now  be  only  the  empty,  if  not  absurd  for- 
malities of  a  little  Court ;  and  whenever  Sir  Hudson  Lowe  styled  Napoleon 
"  General,','  they  pursed  their  lips,  muttered  insolent  remarks,  and  turned  their 
backs  on  him.  They  called  him  spy,  inquisitor,  police-agent,  gaoler,  and  worse. 
They  denied  that  he  had  ever  been  a  soldier  (he  had  been  a  good  and  brave  one), 
and  they  sneered  at  his  services  as  those  of  a  robber.  All  these  contemptible 
creatures  poured  forth  their  spleen  in  memoirs  or  letters,  exaggerating  every  dis- 
comfort, magnifying  the  martyrdom  of  the  illustrious  exile,  who,  in  self-com- 
placency at  his  sufferings,  compared  himself  with  Christ. 

Napoleon  could  not  refrain  from  making  remarks  on  the  face  of  Sir  Hudson 
Lowe  as  *'  hideous  and  most  ugly."  The  Governor,  in  answer  to  the  torrent  of 
complaint  that  poured  from  the  exile,  expressed  his  regrets  that  Longwood  did 
not  furnish  all  the  accommodation  and  comforts  Napoleon  might  desire,  and 
which  the  British  Government  wished  to  afford  him,  and  added  that  a  suitable 
house  of  wood,  fitted  up  with  every  possible  accommodation,  and  luxuriously 
furnished,  was  then  on  its  way  from  England  for  his  use.  Napoleon  refused  it  at 
once,  and  exclaimed  that  it  was  not  a  house  that  he  wanted,  but  an  executioner 
and  a  coffin.  Then  the  ex-Emperor  took  up  some  reports  of  the  campaign  of 
1 8 14,  and  asked  if  they  had  been  written  by  Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  and  proceeded 
to  say  that  they  were  as  full  of  lies  as  they  were  of  folly.  The  Governor,  without 
losing  his  temper,  retired  with  a  cold  acknowledgment ;  whereupon  Napoleon 
stormed  against  him  like  a  fishwife,  and  bade  a  servant  throw  a  cup  of  coffee  out 
of  the  window,  because  it  had  stood  on  a  table  near  the  Governor. 

A  legend,  relative  to  the  last  days  of  Napoleon  at  S.  Helena,  has  been  manu- 
factured out  of  the  rancorous  reports  of  those  who  were  condemned  to  be  his 
companions,  and  of  those  in  France  whose  imagination  played  over  his  place  of 


S.    HELENA  523 

exile.  Savary  was  not  permitted  to  go  to  S.  Helena  ;  but  this  choice  specimen 
of  a  director  of  spies  thought  it  seemly  to  charge  Sir  Hudson  Lowe  with  being 
a  police-agent ;  and  this  man,  who  directed  and  presided  over  the  murder  of  the 
Due  d'Enghien,  lifted  up  his  hands  in  holy  horror  at  the  wickedness  of  the 
English  in  sending  the  exile  to  so  unhealthy  an  island,  and  for  selecting  as  his 
gaoler  a  man  who  possessed  the  execrable  art  of  making  him  die  by  inches — 
"  Lui  faire  mourir  a  coup  d'epingles." 

It  was  not  in  human  nature  to  endure  the  incessant  insults  and  provocation 
offered,  without  some  resentment ;  and  the  Governor  had  duties  imposed  on 
him  which  could  not  be  executed  in  a  manner  agreeable  to  the  feelings  of 
Bonaparte ;  but  Sir  Hudson  Lowe  never  insisted  on  any  act  which  could  need- 
lessly annoy  his  captive  or  even  one  of  his  noisy  and  contemptible  attendants. 
The  Irish  doctor,  who  was  predisposed  against  him,  never  for  a  moment  con- 
sidered Sir  Hudson  as  capable  of  a  dishonourable  or  inhuman  act,  and,  as  he 
came  to  know  him  better,  his  first  prejudice  vanished.     He  says  : — 

"  If,  notwithstanding  this  prepossession,  my  testimony  should  incline  to  the 
other  side,  I  can  truly  state  that  the  change  took  place  from  the  weight  of 
evidence,  and  in  consequence  of  what  came  under  my  own  observation  in 
S.  Helena.  Poor  man,  he  has  since  that  time  encountered  a  storm  of  obloquy 
and  reproach  enough  to  bow  any  person  to  the  earth.  Yet  I  firmly  believe  that 
the  talent  he  exerted  in  unravelling  the  intricate  plotting  constantly  going  on  at 
Longwood,  and  the  firmness  in  tearing  it  to  pieces,  with  the  increasing  vigilance 
he  displayed  in  the  discharge  of  his  arduous  duties,  made  him  more  enemies 
than  any  hastiness  of  temper,  uncourteousness  of  demeanour,  and  severity  in 
his  measures,  of  which  the  world  believed  him  guilty." 

Napoleon's  plot  to  escape,  to  place  himself  again  at  the  head  of  the  dis- 
contented in  France,  was  not  abandoned,  and  there  were  in  the  island  those  but 
too  ready  to  unite  in  it.  Sir  Hudson  was  responsible  for  the  prisoner,  and  was 
obliged  to  be  watchful,  lest  he  should  slip  between  his  fingers. 

As  to  the  charge  against  the  salubrity  of  Longwood,  it  was  untrue.  The 
house  was  planted  2,000  feet  above  the  sea,  in  a  cool  and  pleasant  atmosphere. 
If  the  Emperor  had  been  left  below,  what  outcries  would  have  been  raised  !  A 
large  sum  of  money  was  spent  in  enlarging  and  ameliorating  the  residence,  and 
every  wish  Napoleon  expressed  for  its  further  improvement  was  promptly 
attended  to.  The  sum  of  ;^  12,000  per  annum  was  allowed  for  his  domestic 
expenditure,  and  the  Governor  was  authorised  to  draw  on  the  Treasury  for 
more  money  if  this  allowance  proved  insufficient.  Napoleon  was  allowed  a 
space  measuring  eight,  and  eventually  twelve,  miles  in  circumference  round 
Longwood,  through  which  he  might  ride  or  walk  at  his  pleasure;  but  beyond 
these  limits  he  was  to  be  accompanied  by  a  British  officer.  This  was  an  occasion 
for  petulance,  and  he  shut  himself  up  in  the  house  and  garden,  and  represented 
that  Sir  Hudson  was  killing  him.  The  real  fact  was,  that  the  disease  of  which 
his  father  had  died,  cancer  of  the  stomach,  had  begun  to  make  violent  motion 
unpleasant ;  and  he  took  up  the  grievance  that  he  was  watched,  as  an  excuse  for 
abandoning  his  rides,  and  to  magnify  his  martyrdom. 


524        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

For  the  same  reason,  Napoleon  refused  to  take  the  drugs  prescribed  for 
him,  pretending  that  they  had  been  tampered  with  by  the  Governor.  But  he 
was  perfectly  aware  of  the  nature  of  his  disorder,  for  it  had  manifested  itself  as 
far  back  as  during  the  Russian  campaign,  and  his  sister,  the  Princess  Borghese, 
was  also  menaced  with  it. 

The  ill-humour  of  the  followers  of  Napoleon  was  not  vented  on  Sir  Hudson 
Lowe  and  the  English  alone.  Napoleon  himself  had  often  to  contend  against 
their  ill-temper.  As  often  happens  with  men  and  women  in  such  circumstances, 
they  quarrelled  with  one  another,  and  part  of  their  ill-humour  overflowed  upon 


THE    DEATH-BED   OF    NAPOLEON. 
From  a  contemporary  engraving. 

their  chief.  He  took  these  little  incidents  deeply  to  heart.  On  one  occasion  he 
said  bitterly,  "  I  know  that  I  am  fallen  ;  but  to  feel  this  among  you  !  I  am 
aware  that  a  man  is  frequently  unreasonable,  and  susceptible  to  offence.  Thus, 
when  I  am  mistrustful  of  myself,  I  ask,  Would  I  have  been  treated  in  this  way 
at  the  Tuileries?" 

Captain  Basil  Hall,  in  August,  1817,  when  in  command  of  the  Lyra,  had  an 
interview  with  the  Emperor,  and  he  thus  describes  him  : — 

"  Bonaparte  struck  me  as  differing  considerably  from  the  pictures  and  busts 
I  had  seen  of  him.  His  face  and  figure  looked  much  broader  and  more  square 
— larger,  indeed,  in  every  way  than  any  representation  I  had  met  with.  His 
corpulency,  at  this  time  universally  reported  to  be  excessive,  was  by  no  mean;; 


S.    HELENA 


525 


remarkable.  His  flesh  looked,  on  the  contrary,  firm  and  muscular.  There  was 
not  the  least  trace  of  colour  in  his  cheeks  ;  in  fact,  his  skin  was  more  like 
marble  than  ordinary  flesh.  Not  the  smallest  trace  of  a  wrinkle  was  dis- 
cernible on  his  brow,  nor  an  approach  to  a  furrow  on  any  part  of  his  coun- 
tenance. His  health  and  spirits,  judging  from  appearances,  were  excellent, 
though  at  this  period  it  was  generally  believed  in  England  that  he  was  fast 
sinking  under  a  complication  of  diseases,  and  that  his  spirits  were  entirely  gone. 
His  manner  of  speaking  was  rather  slow  than  otherwise,  and  perfectly  distinct ; 
he  waited  with  great  patience  and  kindness  for  my  answers  to  his  questions, 
and  a  reference  to  Count  Bertrand  was  necessary  only  once  during  the  whole 
conversation.  The  brilliant  and  sometimes  dazzling  expression  of  his  eye 
could  not  be  overlooked.     It  was  not,  however,  a  permanent  lustre,  for  it  was 


^- 

d 

■ 

^ 

"•' 

'^^^,-<^S  ^^^^  ■ 

^ 

nafoleon's  last  sleep. 

From  a  sketch  made  at  Longwood,  by  W.  Crockatt,  May  6,  1821. 

only  remarkable  when  he  was  excited  by  some  point  of  particular  interest.  It 
is  impossible  to  imagine  an  expression  of  more  entire  mildness,  I  may  almost 
call  it  of  benignity  and  kindness,  than  that  which  plaj^ed  over  his  features 
during  the  whole  interview.  If,  therefore,  he  was  at  this  time  out  of  health  and 
in  low  spirits,  his  power  of  self-command  must  have  been  even  more  extra- 
ordinary than  is  generally  supposed,  for  his  whole  deportment,  his  conversa- 
tion, and  the  expression  of  his  countenance,  indicated  a  frame  in  perfect 
health,  and  a  mind  at  ease." 

During  his  residence  on  the  island,  Napoleon  was  engaged  on  his  Memoirs, 
which  he  dictated  to  Las  Cases,  and  which  were  published  under  the  title 
of  Memorial  de  Sainte-Helene. 

The  conversation  engaged  in  by  Napoleon  with  Las  Cases,  O'Meara, 
Antommarchi,  exhibits  him  exercising  the  same  dissimulation  that  marked  his 


526        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


ON    HIS    DEATH-BED. 
From  a  sketch  made  by  Captain  Marryat,  by  the  order  of  Sir  Hudson  Lowe. 

political  life.  He  now  laboured  to  manufacture  the  pedestal  on  which  his 
glorified  image  was  to  stand  for  the  adoration  of  posterity.  His  Meinoires 
teem  with  false  statements,  which  it  is  now  possible  to  expose.  An  instance  or 
two  will  suffice.     He  indignantly  protested  that  he  had  not  been  protected  by 

Barras  at  Toulon,  nor  on  the 
13th  Vendemiaire.  But  his 
own  correspondence,  preserved 
in  the  archives  of  the  Ministry 
of  War,  has  placed  beyond  all 
doubt  that  to  the  intervention 
of  Barras  he  largely  owed  his 
opportunities  of  starting  on 
the  road  that  led  to  success. 

He  took  vast  pains  at  S. 
Helena  to  justify  the  murder 
of  the  Due  d'Enghien  ;  and  he 
chose  Talleyrand  as  his  scape- 
goat. He  pretended  that  the 
•'ne  le  craignez  plus."  latter  had  suppressed  a  letter 

From  an  engraving  by  Romhild.  from  the  Dukc  tO  him,  in  which 


S.    HELENA 


527 


the  young  Prince  appealed  to  his  mercy.  But  Talleyrand  had  objected  to  the 
murder,  which  he  saw  was  a  mistake.  Napoleon  laboured  to  vilify  Moreau, 
and  to  make  him  out  to  be  incapable  as  a  general.  He  reproached  him  for 
lack  of  ability  in  conducting  the  celebrated  retreat  in  1797.  He  suppressed 
the  facts  that  he  had  himself  weakened  the  army  of  Moreau,  and  had  forbidden 
him  to  advance. 


NAPOLEON    DEAD. 
After  a  painting  by  Horace  Vernet. 

He  went  further,  and  poured  forth  ;his  bile  on  all  his  generals.  Davoust,  he 
declared,  was  nothing Jbut  a  machine — a  mere  soldier;  Massena  was  rash  and 
favoured  by  his  good  luck  ;  Soult  was  not  fit  to  be  more  than  a  major-general ; 
Oudinot  was  dull ;  Kleber  incapable ;  Ney  was  brave,  but  nothing  beyond  that ; 
Berthier  was  an  idiot ;  and  Murat  a  fool.  Then  Napoleon  turned  to  his  family, 
and  depicted  Joseph  as  a 'commonplace,  good-natured  man,  and  that  was  all  ; 
he  pelted  Lucien  with  bad  epithets,  turned  Jerome  into  ridicule,  poured  forth 
his  contempt  on  Louis.     None  were  spared  ;  just  as  of  old  in  the  Tuileries  he 


528        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


delighted  in  throwing  in  the  faces  of  his  company  all  the  scandals  and  faults  he 
had  detected  in  their  private  lives  through  the  agency  of  his  secret  police.  In 
the  Memorial  de  Sainte-Helene,  he  reveals  a  miserable  spite,  a  thoroughly 
ignoble  mind,  that  revels  in  all  kinds  of  odious  revelations,  in  which  the  truth  is 
just  so  far  mingled  with  the  false  as  to  give  them  an  appearance  of  verity.  And 
the  unhappy  effect  of  this  production  is  that  the  unravelling  of  the  falsehood  is 
difficult  to  perform,  and  in  weariness  of  spirit  the  whole  preposterous  mass  is 
accepted.    The  reading  of  the  Memorial  inspires  nothing  but  disgust.    All  those 

who  played  any  part  at  the  time 
of  the  Empire  are  represented 
as  rogues  or  fools.  Happily 
the  work  of  verification  has  been 
taken  in  hand,  and  many  of  the 
calumnies  refuted.  Nevertheless, 
one  cannot  regret  the  production 
of  the  Memorial,  for  in  it 
Napoleon  has  revealed  himself 
unmistakably  in  his  perfidious- 
ness,  want  of  generosity,  and  his 
jealousy  of  merit  in  others.* 

In  judging  of  Napoleon  at 
S.  Helena,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that,  though  intellectually 
a  giant,  his  moral  nature  had 
been  stunted,  and  if  it  did  not 
die  early,  was  throughout  his 
life  a  negligible  quantity.  In  all 
situations  that  required  force  of 
intellect  Napoleon  was  great  ; 
in  situations  requiring  moral 
force  he  was  contemptible.  But, 
since  intellect  without  moral 
feeling  is  force  without  guidance,  Napoleon's  action  in  the  world  was  as  blind 
as  that  of  an  earthquake ;  it  lacked  everything  that  makes  man's  action 
among  his  fellow-men  valuable  and  beneficial. 

Napoleon  was  the  ablest  man  since  Caesar.  Where  there  is  no  shadow, 
there  is  also  no  light,  and  the  darker  the  shade  the  more  brilliant  is  the  light 
illumining  one  side  of  man.  At  S.  Helena  there  was  no  possibility  of  the 
luminous  side  of  Napoleon  showing :  all  that  could  possibly  appear  was  the 
shadow.  And  all  that  was  ignoble  in  him  was  subject  to  microscopic  examina- 
tion, and  was  aggravated  by  the  suspicion  of  Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  who  had  the 
mind  of  a  martinet. 

Haute  politique  was  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  glorious  genius  of  Napoleon 
could  alone  live.    In  such  conditions  as  surrounded  him  at  S.  Helena,  he  existed 

*  Jung,  Bonaparte  et  son  Temps,  i88i. 


CHAIR  OF  NAPOLEON  AT  S.  HELENA. 


S.    HELENA 


529 


as  an  eagle  in  a  cage,  pecking  at  the  bars,  ruffling  his  plumes  at  every  finger  that^ 
approached.  Behind  bars  the  golden  eagle  is  a  sorry  fowl.  He  was  not  made 
for  captivity,  but  to  soar  in  the  open  firmament  of  heaven. 

Again,  in  judging  Napoleon  we  must  consider  that  he  was  brought  up  under 
the  worst  possible  influences,  moral,  social,  and  religious,  and  that  he  had  to 
create  a  law  for  himself,  and 
that  under  such  circumstances 
any  other  man  but  he  would 
have  been  entirely  despicable. 
The  one  thing  he  lacked  to 
make  him  really  great,  was  an 
appreciation  of  moral  force.  ' 
•  Napoleoii  resolutely  shut  . 
his  eyes  to  all  the  wanton 
bloodshed  and  misery  he  had 
caused,  and  looked  only  at 
the  good  his  rule  had  done 
France!  That  must  not  be 
overlooked.  When  France  was 
in  anarchy,  he  had  established 
order,  repressed  crime  and 
folly,  repaired  the  evils  alike 
of  the  ancien  regime  and  of 
the  Revolution  ;  had  enriched 
Paris  with  magnificent  struc- 
tures, crossed  .  France  with 
superb  highways,  and  done 
much  for  the  harbours  on 
the  coast.  His  signature  of 
the  Concordat  did,  indeed,  an 
ostensible  good  to  the  Church, 
but  vitally  sapped  its  life  just 
when  springing  to  vigorous, 
national  regeneration. 

In   December,    18 16,  Las 
Cases  was  compelled  to  leave 
S.  Helena.     He  had  been  detected  carrying  on  communication  with  Lucien 
Bonaparte. 

About  the  middle  of  1818,  Napoleon's  health  began  to  fail ;  and  he  was  well 
aware  that  the  hereditary  malady  which  had  carried  off  his  father  was  making 
rapid  inroads  on  his  constitution.  His  doctor,  the  Irishman  O'Meara,  reported 
the  failure  of  his  health  to  the  Governor.  Even  now  Napoleon  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity for  renewing  his  claim  to  the  title  of  Emperor.  This  Sir  -Hudson  Lowe 
could  not  concede,  but  there  was  surely  pettiness  in  the  British  Ministry  in  not 
allowing  to  the  fallen  Emperor  a  .title,  the  retention  of  which  was  of  small 
2  M 


CAST   OF    THE    FACE   AFTER    DEATH. 
Taken  by  Antommarchi. 


530        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

political  significance,  but  of  great  personal  importance  to  Napoleon.  After 
some  difficulty,  it  was  agreed  that  the  term  "  patient "  should  be  substituted  for 
the  title  of  "  General,"  which  caused  so  much  offence.  O'Meara  proposed  that 
Dr.  Baxter,  the  principal  medical  officer  in  the  island,  should  be  summoned,  but 
Napoleon  refused  to  receive  him,  alleging  that,  although  "  it  was  true  he  looked 
like  an  honest  man,  he  was  too  much  attached  to  that  hangman"  (Lowe),  and 
he  refused  all  medicine,  pretending  that  an  attempt  would  be  made  through  it  to 
poison  him. 

O'Meara,  having  fallen  under  suspicion  of  managing  a  secret  correspondence 
between  the  Emperor  and  his  adherents  in  France,  was  removed  ;  and  a  Dr. 
Antommarchi,  a  young  Italian  surgeon,  and  two  Roman  Catholic  abbes,  were 
sent  to  S.  Helena,  and  landed  on  the  lOth  September,  1819. 

"  I  have  grown  fat,  my  energy  is  gone,  the  bow  is  unstrung,"  said  Napoleon 
to  his  new  medical  attendant. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  year  1820  he  walked  with  difficulty,  and  remained 
in  a  weak  state  until  the  following  April,  when  the  disease  assumed  an  alarming 
character.  He  then  consented  to  be  attended  by  Dr.  Arnott.  The  news  of  the 
death  of  his  sister,  Elise  Bacciochi,  affected  him  deeply.  After  a  struggle  with 
his  feelings,  which  had  almost  overpowered  him,  he  rose,  supported  himself  on 
Antommarchi's  arm,  and  said,  "  Doctor,  Elise,  you  see,  has  just  shown  me  the 
way.  Death,  which  seemed  to  have  forgotten  my  family,  has  begun  to  strike 
it ;  my  turn  cannot  be  far  off"  Presently  he  lay  down  on  his  bed.  "  Leave  me 
to  myself,"  he  said.  "  What  a  delicious  thing  rest  is  !  I  would  not  exchange  it 
for  all  the  thrones  in  the  world.  How  am  I  fallen  !  I,  whose  activity  was 
boundless,  whose  mind  never  slumbered,  am  now  plunged  in  lethargic  stupor, 
so  that  it  is  only  by  an  effort  that  I  can  raise  my  eyelids.  .  .  .  Once  I  was 
Napoleon,  now  I  am  no  longer  anything.  My  strength,  my  faculties,  forsake 
me.     I  do  not  live  ;  I  merely  exist." 

His  last  airing  was  on  the  17th  of  March.  The  disease  increased,  and 
Antommarchi  consulted  with  Dr.  Arnott.  Napoleon  still  refused  to  take 
medicine.  "  Everything,"  said  he,  "  that  must  happen  is  written  down  ;  our 
hour  is  marked,  and  it  is  not  in  our  power  to  take  from  time  a  portion  which 
Nature  refuses  us." 

It  was  reported  to  him  that  a  comet  had  been  seen.  "  Ah  !  a  comet !  "  he 
exclaimed  excitedly,  "  that  was  the  precursor  of  the  death  of  Caesar." 

On  the  3rd  of  April  he  was  advised  to  make  his  will,  but  this  he  did  not 
execute  till  the  15th;  and  on  the  24th,  with  some  of  his  characteristic  im- 
placability, he  bequeathed  ''  ten  thousand  francs  to  the  subaltern  officer  Cantillon, 
who  has  undergone  trial  upon  the  charge  of  having  endeavoured  to  assassinate 
Lord  Wellington,  of  which  he  was  pronounced  innocent.  Cantillon  had  as  much 
right  to  assassinate  that  oligarchist  as  the  latter  had  to  send  me  to  perish  on 
the  rock  of  S.  Helena."* 

This  was  saying,  as  plainly  as  any  words  could  express  it,  that  he,  the  dying 

*  Marie  Andre  Cantillon,  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt,  did  intend  to  shoot  the  Duke,  but  missed 
his  aim.     This  was  at  Paris  ;  a  French  jury  acquitted  him. 


napoleon's  last  day. 

By  Vela. 


S. 'HELENA 


533 


Bonaparte,  believed  Cantillon  to  have  been  guilty;  of  an  at roCimi 5;  attempt,  Snci 
that  it  was  for  that  very  deed  that  he  left  him  a  legacy.',^  This  [is  t^he  most 
painful  instance  of  the  malignity  of  the  second  man  in  Napoleonj  and  it 
shows  how  ill-prepared  he  was  to  go  before  the  throne  of  Him  who  bade 
us  pray,  "  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  them  that  trepass 
against  us."  .  ,  '  ^     ; 

Napoleon's  ideas  of  the  future  state  were  rather  heathen  than  Christian. 
He  said,  as  he  lay  on  his  d^ath-bed,  "  I  shall  behold  my  brave  companions  in 
arms   in   the   Elysian   fields — Kleber,   Dessaix,   Bessieres,  Duroc,  Ney,  Murat, 


THE    TOMB    OF    NAPOLEON. 
From  an  anonymous  lithograph. 


Massena,  Berthier,  all  will  come  to  greet  me :  they  will  talk  to  me  of  what  we 
have  done  together.  On  seeing  me,  they  will  become  once  more  intoxicated 
with  enthusiasm  and  glory.  We  will  discourse  of  our  wars  with  the  Scipios, 
Hannibal,  Caesar,  and  Frederick.  There  will  be  satisfaction  in  that,  unless,"  he 
added,  laughing  bitterly,  "  they  above  should  be  alarmed  to  see  so  many  warriors 
assembled  together." 

He,  however,  declared  that  he  would  die,  as  he  was-  born,  a  Catholic,  and 
proceeded  to  give  instructions  relative  to  his  funeral.  To  Antommarchi,  who 
was  an  atheist,  he  said,  "  I  am  neither  a  philosopher  nor  a  metaphysician.  I 
believe  in  God  ;  I  am  of  the  religion  of  my  fathers  ;  everyone  cannot  be  an  atheist 
who  pleases.  .  .  .  Can  you  disbelieve  in  God  ?  Everything  proclaims  His 
existence,  and,  besides,  the  greatest  minds  have  thought  so."     Then  he  added, 


534        THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

half  to  himself,  "  These  fellows  are  conversant  only  with  matter  ;  they  will  believe 
in  nothing  beyond."  * 

During  the  first  two  days  of  May  he  was  delirious,  and  imagined  himself  on 
the  field  of  battle,  and  cried  out  at  intervals,  "  Dessaix  !  Massena !  Victory  is 
declaring  for  us  !     F^orwards  !  press  the  charge  !     They  are  ours  !  " 

On  the  3rd,  he  recovered  consciousness,  and  said  to  Dr.  Arnott,  "  I  am  going 
to  die.  You  have  shared  my  exile,  and  will  be  faithful  to  my  memory.  I  have 
sanctioned  all  proper  principles,  and  infused  them  into  my  laws  and  acts.  I 
have  not  omitted  a  single  one.  Undoubtedly,  the  circumstances  in  which  I  was 
placed  were  arduous,  and  I  was  obliged  to  act  with  severity,  and  postpone  the 
carrying  out  of  my  plans.  Reverses  occurred  ;  I  could  not  unbend  the  bow. 
France  has  been  deprived  of  the  liberal  institutions  I  intended  to  give  her.  She 
judges  me  with  indulgence.  She  is  grateful  for  my  intentions.  She  cherishes 
my  name,  and  the  recollection  of  my  victories." 

Not  a  word  of  penitence  for  faults  committed,  for  the  blood  he  had  poured 
forth  like  water,  for  fields  devastated,  for  homes  made  deeolate.  The  day  before 
his  death,  which  occurred  in  the  evening  of  May  6th,  1821,  a  tempest  burst  over 
Longwood,  tearing  up  the  plantations  by  the  roots,  and  prostrating  a  willow 
under  which  Napoleon  usually  seated  himself.  "It  seemed,"  says  Antom- 
marchi,  "  as  if  none  of  the  things  the  Emperor  valued  were  to  survive  him." 

He  gradually  became  insensible  ;  he  scarcely  spoke  for  two  days,  and  on 
the  morning  of  his  death,  articulated  a  few  broken  sentences,  among  which  the 
only  words  distinguishable  were,  "  Tete  dArniee,  France^'  the  last  that  ever  left 
his  lips,  and  indicated  the  direction  of  his  dying  thoughts. 

At  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  a  gun  from  the  fort  announced  the  setting  of 
the  sun  ;  and  at  the  same  moment  the  soul  of  Napoleon  sped  to  its  last  account. 

*  Antommarchi,  ii.   121. 


NAPOLEON  S   STRAW    HAT,    WORN    AT   S.    HELENA. 
From  the  collection  of  Prince  Victor. 


LV 
APOTHEOSIS 

THE  account  of  the   funeral  of  Napoleon  shall  be  quoted  from   Colonel 
Phipps'  admirable  edition  of  the  Memoirs  of  Bourrienne.     It  took  place 
on  the  8th  of  May. 

According  to  his  own  wish,  the  heart  and  intestines  of  Napoleon  had  been 
examined  after  death,  and  were  preserved  in  two  vessels,  filled  with  spirits 
of  wine,  and  hermetically  sealed.  These  were  placed  in  the  corners  of 
the  coffin. 

"  This  was  a  shell  of  zinc,  lined  with  white  satin,  in  which  was  a  mattress 
furnished  with  a  pillow.  There  not  being  room  for  the  hat  to  remain  on  the 
head,  it  was  placed  at  his  feet,  with  some  eagles,  pieces  of  French  money  coined 
during  his  reign,  a  plate  engraved  with  his  arms,  etc.  The  coffin  was  closed, 
carefully  soldered  up,  and  then  fixed  in  another  case  of  mahogany,  which  was 
enclosed  in  a  third,  made  of  lead,  which  last  was  fastened  in  a  fourth  of 
mahogany,  which  was  sealed  up,  and  fastened  with  screws.  The  coffin  was 
exhibited,  and  was  covered  with  the  cloak  that  Napoleon  had  worn  at  the  battle 
of  Marengo.  The  funeral  was  ordered  for  the  morrow,  8th  of  May,  and  the 
troops  were  to  attend  in  the  morning  by  break  of  day. 

"  This  took  place  accordingly;  the  Governor  arrived  first,  the  Rear-Admiral 
soon  after,  and  shortly  all  the  authorities,  civil  and  military,  were  assembled  at 
Longwood.  The  day  was  fine,  the  people  crowded  the  roads,  music  resounded 
from  the  heights  ;  never  had  spectacle  so  sad  and  solemn  been  witnessed  in 
these  remote  regions.  At  half-past  twelve,  the  grenadiers  took  hold  of  the 
coffin,  lifted  it  with  difficulty,  and  succeeded  in  removing  it  into  the  great  walk 
in  the  garden,  where  the  hearse  awaited  them.  It  was  placed  on  the  carriage, 
covered  with  a  pall  of  violet  velvet,  and  with  the  cloak  which  the  hero  wore  at 
Marengo.  The  Emperor's  household  were  in  mourning.  The  cavalcade  was 
arranged  by  order  of  the  Governor  in  the  following  manner : — The  Abbe 
Vignale,  in  his  sacerdotal  robes,  with  young  Henri  Eertrand  at  his  side,  bearing 
an  aspersorium  ;  Doctors  Arnott  and  Antommarchi,  the  persons  entrusted  with 
the  superintendence  of  the  hearse,  drawn  by  four  horses,  led  by  grooms,  and 
escorted  by  twelve  grenadiers,  without  arms,  on  each  side  ;  these  last  were  to 
carry  the  coffin  on  their  shoulders,  as  soon  as  the  ruggedness  of  the  road  pre- 
vented the  hearse  from  advancing  ;  young  Napoleon  Bertrand  and  Marchand, 
both  on  foot,  and  by  the  side  of  the  hearse  ;  Counts  Bertrand  and  Montholon, 
on  horseback,  close  behind  the  hearse  ;  a  part  of  the  household  of  the  Emperor  ; 
Countess  Bertrand,  with  her  daughter  Hortense,  in  a  calash  drawn  by  two 
horses,  led  by  hand  by  her  domestics,  who  walked  by  the  side  of  the  precipice  ; 
the  Emperor's  horse,  led  by  his  piqueur,  Archambaud  ;  the  officers  of  marine  on 

535 


53^ 


THE  LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE 


horseback  and  on  foot ;  the  officers  of  the  staff  on  horseback  ;  the  members  of 
the  Council  of  the  island  in  like  manner  ;  General  Coffin  and  the  Marquis 
Montchenu  on  horseback ;  the  Rear-Admiral  and  the  Governor  on  horseback  ; 
the  inhabitants  of  the  island. 

"  The  train  set  out  in  this  order  from  Longwood,  passed  by  the  barracks, 
and  was  met  by  the  garrison,  about  2,500  in  number,  drawn  up  on  the  left  of  the 


THE    FUNERAL. 
From  a  sketch  by  Captain  Marryat. 

i-bad  as  far  as  Hut's  Gate.  Military  bands,  placed  at  different  distances,  added 
still  more,  by  the  mournful  airs  which  they  played,  to  the  striking  solemnity  of 
the  occasion.  When  the  train  had  passed,  the  troops  followed  and  accompanied 
it  to  the  burying-place.  The  dragoons  marched  first.  Then  came  the  20th 
Regiment  of  Infantry,  the  Marines,  the  66th,  the  Volunteers  of  S.  Helena,  and 
lastly,  the  company  of  Royal  Artillery,  with  fifteen  pieces  of  cannon.     Lady 


THE    FUNERAL. 
From  a  sketch  by  Captain  Marryat. 


Lowe  and  her  daughter  were  at  the  roadside  at  Hut's  Gate,  in  an  open  carriage 
drawn  by  two  horses.  They  were  attended  by  some  domestics  in  mourning, 
and  followed  the  procession  at  a  distance.  The  fifteen  pieces  of  artillery  were 
ranged  along  the  road,  and  the  gunners  were  at  their  posts,  ready  to  fire. 
Having  advanced  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  beyond  Hut's  Gate,  the  hearse 
stopped,  the  troops  halted  and  drew  up  in  line  of  battle  by  the  roadside.  The 
grenadiers  then  raised  the  coffin  on  their  shoulders,  and  bore  it  thus  to  the  place 
of  interment,  by  the  new  route  which  had  been  made  on  purpose  on  the 
declivity  of  the  mountain.     All  the  attendants  alighted,  the  ladies  descended 


APOTHEOSIS 


537 


from  their  carriages,  and  the  procession  followed,  the  corpse  without^obseryihg 
any  regular  order. 

"  Counts  Bertrand  and  Montholon,  Marchand  and  young  Napoleon  Bertrand, 
carried  the  fouf  corners  of  the  pall.  The  coffin  was  laid  down  at  the  side  of  the 
tomb,  which  was  hung  with  black.  Near  was  seen  the  cords  and  pulleys  which 
were  to  lower  it  into,  the  earth.  The  coffin  was  then  uncovered,  the  Abbe 
Vignale  repeated  the  usual  prayers,  and  the  body  was  let  down  into  the  grave 
with  the  feet  to  the  east. .  The  artillery  then  fired  three  salutes  in  succession  of 
fifteen  discharges  each.  The  Admiral  s  vessel  had  fired  during  the  procession 
twenty-five  guns  from  time  to  time.  A  huge  stone,  which  was  to  have  been 
employed  in  the. building  of 
the  new  house  for  the  Emperor, 
was  now  used  to  close  his 
grave,  and  was  lowered  till  it 
rested  on  a  strong  stone  wall, 
so  as  not  to  touch  the  coffin. 
While  the  grave  was  closed, 
the  crowd  seized  upon  the 
willows,  which  the  former 
presence  of  Napoleon  had 
already  rendered  objects  of 
veneration.  Everyone  was  am- 
bitious to  possess  a  branch  or 
some  leaves  of  these  trees, 
which  were  henceforth  to 
shadow  the  tomb  of  this  great 
man,  and  to  preserve  them  as 
a  precious  relic  of  so  memor- 
able a  scene.  The  Governor 
and  Admiral  endeavoured  to 
prevent  this  outrage,  but  in 
vain.  The  Governor,  however, 
surrounded  the  spot  afterwards 
with  a  barricade,  where  he 
placed  a  guard  to  keep  off  all 
intruders.  The  tonib  of  the 
Emperor  was  about  a  league 
from  Longwood.  .  .  .  The  com- 
panions of  Napoleon  returned  to  France,  and  the  island  gradually  resumed  its 
former  quiet  state,  while  the  willows  weeping  over  the  grave  guarded  the  ashes 
of  the  man  for  whom  Europe  had  been  all  too  small."  * 

The  report  of  the  death  of  Napoleon  plunged  all  France  in  a  painful  stupor; 
the  infinite  littleness  of  the  Bourbon  regime  brought  home  to  its  conscience  the 
greatness  of  the  man  who  had  passed  away.  All  minds  turned  to  S.  Helena,  to 
the  tomb  by  Hut's  Gate,  where,  to  many  an  ardent  imagination,  the  honour  of 
France  lay  buried. 

Then  the  Napoleonic  myth  grew  up  out  of  that  lonely  grave  under  the 
weeping  willows,  and  took  possession  of  the  hearts,  and  filled  the  horizon  to 
which  the  hopes  of  France  turned.  The  explosions  of  venomous  hate  favoured 
by  the  Bourbon  Government  were  listened  to  with  contempt,  and  remained 

*  BOURRIENNE,  ed.  Phipps,  iii.  527, 


APOTHEOSE. 
From  a  lithograph  of 


[832. 


538 


THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


without  effect.  Caricatures  were  produced  to  ridicule  the  dead  hero,  and  no 
one  laughed  at  them  ;  but  a  thousand  little  symbols  of  the  great  Emperor, 
allegorical  pictures,  canonizations  appeared,  and  were  suppressed  by  the  police 
whenever  they  could  lay  their  vulgar  hands  on  them. 

It  was  hoped  that  Napoleon  would  revive  in  his  son,  and  that  with  this  son 
the  colouredjcockade  would  again  reappear. 

The  Napoleonic  myth,  as  well  as  the  Napoleonic  scare,  has  passed  away. 
We  are  now  able  to  distinguish  Bonaparte  as  he  really  was,  no  longer  sur- 
rounded by  the  thunder-clouds  of  war,  nor  the  apreole  of  apotheosis.     We  see 


RECEPTION   OF    THE   BODY   AT   THE    INVALIDES. 
From  a  drawing  by  Ferrogio  and  Gdrard. 

that  he  was  of  composite  character,  that  he  had  a  genius  of  the  highest  order ; 
but  that,  on  account  of  defective  education,  not  only  was  he  incapable  of  spell- 
ing and  writing,  but  also  was  a  blunderer  in  the  very  alphabet  of  morality,  of 
truth,  and  honour.  He  who  did  not  blush  to  peep  into  letters  and  listen  at 
keyholes,  was  yet  capable  of  imposing  trust  on  -those  he  loved,  and  of  acting 
with  generosity.  He  hated  and  scorned  what  was  false  and  unworthy  in  his 
enemies,  in  his  familiar  associates,  but  allowed  himself  to  be  guilty  of  every 
baseness.  At  one  moment  in  his  life,  when  everything  was  possible,  he  took 
the  wrong  turn.  He  might  have  reigned,  and  established  his  dynasty  on  im- 
perishable foundations,  if  he  had  been  able  to  see  that  there  were  principles  as 
well  as  passions  in  the  Revolution ;  and  if  he  had  resolutely  curbed  the 
passions,  and  set  himself  to  the  carrying  out  of  the  principles,  instead  of  tread- 
ing them  into  the  bloodstained  earth.      Had  he  set  himself  to  be  a  great 


INTERIOR  OF  THE   CHURCH   OF  THE   INVALIDES   DURING  THE   FUNERAL. 
From  a  lithograph  by  Dumouza. 


APOTHEOSIS 


541 


constitutional  monarch,  he  would  be  looked  back  on,  not  only  as  the  greatest, 
but  as  the  best  of  men. 

Is  there  any  prospect  of  another  great  Napoleon  arising  out  of  the  same 
family  ?  Of  the  dynasty  reascending  to  the  throne  in  France  ?  There  was  no 
second  great  Csesar  after  Julius.  Charlemagne's  family  died  out  in  insignifi- 
cance.    "  Les  revolutions  ne  se  repetent  pas." 


CAST   OF   THE   FACE   OF   THE   DUKE   OF   REICHSTADT, 
napoleon's   son,    TAKEN   AFTER   DEATH. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX    A 


WILL  OF  THE  EX-EMPEROR   NAPOLEON 

NAPOLEON, 

AUJOURD'HUI,  le  15  avril  182 1,  a  Longwood,  ile  de  Sainte-Helene. 
Ceci  est  mon  testament,  ou  acte  de  ma  derniere  volonte. 

I. 

1°  Je  meurs  dans  la  religion  apostolique  et  romaine,  dans  le  sein  de  laquelle  je  suis 
ne,  il  y  a  plus  de  cinquante  ans. 

2°  Je  desire  que  mes  cendres  reposent  sur  les  bords  de  la  Seine,  au  mili^  de  ce 
peuple  frangais  que  j'ai  tant  aime.  \        ^ 

3®  J'ai  toujours  eu  a  me  louer  de  ma  tres  chere  epouse  Marie-Louise ;  je  lui  conserve 
jusqu'au  dernier  moment  les  plus  tendres  sentiments ;  je  la  prie  de  veiller  pour  garantir 
mon  fils  des  embiiches  qui  environnent  encore  son  enfance. 

4°  Je  recommande  a  mon  fils  de  ne  jamais  oublier  qu'il  est  ne  prince  fran^ais,  et  de  ne 
jamais  se  preter  a  etre  un  instrument  entre  les  mains  des  triumvirs  qui  oppriment  les 
peuples  de  I'Europe.  II  ne  doit  jamais  combattre,  ni  nuire  en  aucune  autre  maniere  a 
la  France ;  il  doit  adopter  ma  devise  :  Tout  pour  le  peuple  /ran fats. 

5*^  Je  meurs  prematurement,  assassine  par  I'oligarchie  anglaise  et  son  sicaire ;  le  peuple 
anglais  ne  tardera  pas  a  me  venger. 

6^  Les  deux  issues  si  malheureuses  des  invasions  de  la  France,  lorsqu'elle  avait  encore 
tant  de  ressources,  sont  dues  aux  trahisons  de  Marmont,  Augereau,  Talleyrand  et  La 
Fayette.     Je  leur  pardonne ;  puisse  la  posterite  frangaise  leur  pardonner  comme  moi ! 

7^  Je  remercie  ma  bonne  et  tres  excellente  mere,  le  cardinal,  mes  freres  Joseph,  Lucien, 
Jerome,  Pauline,  Caroline,  Julie,  Hortense,  Catarine,  Eugene,  de  I'interet  qu'ils  m'ont 
conserve;  je  pardonne  a  Louis  le  libelle  qu'il  a  public  en  1820  ;  il  est  plein  d'assertions 
fausses  et  de  pieces  falsifiees. 

8°  Je  desavoue  le  Manuscrit  de  Saitite-Helene  et  autres  ouvrages,  sous  le  titre  de 
Maximes,  Sentences,  etc.,  que  Ton  s'est  plu  a  publier  depuis  six  ans  :  ce  ne  sont  pas  la 
les  regies  qui  ont  dirige  ma  vie.  J'ai  fait  arreter  et  juger  le  due  d'Enghien^,  parce  que 
€ela  etait  necessaire  a  la  silrete,  a  I'interet  et  a  I'honneur  du  peuple  frangais,  lorsque  le 
comte  d'Artois  entretenait,  de  son  aveu,  soixante  assassins  a  Paris.  Dans  une  semblable 
circonstance,  j'agirais  encore  de  meme. 

2    N  545 


546        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

II. 

i^  Je  legue  a  mon  fils  les  boites,  ordres,  et  autres  objets,  tels  qu'argenterie,  lit  de 
camp,  armes,  selles,  eperons,  vases  de  ma  chapelle,  livres,  linge  qui  a  servi  a  mon  corps 
et  a  mon  usage,  conformement  a  I'etat  annexe,  cote  A.  Je  desire  que  ce  faible  legs  lui 
soit  cher,  comme  lui  retragant  le  souvenir  d'un  pere  dont  I'univers  I'entretiendra. 

2*^  Je  legue  a  Lady  Holland  le  camee  antique  que  le'pape  Pie  VI.  m'a  donne  k 
Tolentino. 

3°  Je  legue  au  comte  Montholon  deux  millions  de  francs,  comme  une  preuve  de  ma 
satisfaction  des  soins  filiaux  qu'il  m'a  rendus  depuis  six  ans,  et  pour  I'indemniser  des 
pertes  que  son  sejour  a  Sainte-Helene  lui  a  occasionnees. 
4*'  Je  legue  a  comte  Bertrand  cinq  cent  mille  francs. 

5°  Je  legue  a  Marchand,  mon  premier  valet  de  chambre,  quatre  cent  mille  francs. 
Les  services  qu'il  m'a  rendus  sont  ceux  d'un  ami.     Je  desire  qu'il  epouse  une  veuve, 
soeur  ou  fille  d'un  officier  ou  soldat  de  ma  vieille  garde. 
6^  Idem^  a  Saint-Denis,  cent  mille  francs. 
7^  Idem,  a  Navarre  (Noverraz),  cent  mille  francs. 
8°  Idetn,  a  Pieron,  cent  mille  francs. 
(f  Idem,  a  Archambaud,  cinquante  mille  francs. 

lo^  Idem,  a  Coursot,  vingt-cinq  mille  francs. 

ii<*  Idem,  a  Chandellier,  vingt-cinq  mille  francs. 

1 2°  Idem,  a  I'abbe  Vignali,  cent  mille  francs.  Je  desire  qu'il  batisse  sa  maison  pres 
de  Ponte  Nuevo  di  Rostino. 

13*^  Idem,  au  comte  Las  Cases,  cent  mille  francs. 

14^  Idem,  au  comte  Lavalette,  cent  mille  francs. 

15°  Idem,  au  chirurgien  en  chef  Larrey,  cent  mille  francs.  C'est  I'homme  le  plus 
vertueux  que  j'aie  connu. 

1 6*^  Idem,  au  general  Brayer,  cent  mille  francs. 

17°  Idem,  au  general  Lefevre-Desnouettes,  cent  mille  francs. 

18^  Idem,  au  general  Drouot,  cent  mille  francs. 

19°  Idem,  au  general  Cambronne,  cent  mille  francs. 

20*^  IdeT?t,  aux  enfants  du  general  Mouton-Duvernet,  cent  mille  francs. 

2  1*^  Idem,  aux  enfants  du  brave  Labedoyere,  cent  mille  francs. 

22°  Idem,  aux  enfants  du  general  Giraud,  tue'  a  Ligni,  cent  mille  francs. 

23^  Idem,  aux  enfants  du  general  Chartraud,  cent  mille  francs. 

24*^  Idem,  aux  enfants  du  vertueux  general  Travot,  cent  mille  francs. 

25^^  Idem,  au  general  Lallemant  I'aine  cent  mille  francs. 

26°  Idem,  au  comte  Real,  cent  mille  francs. 

27*^  Idem,  a  Costa  de  Bastelica,  en  Corse,  cent  mille  francs. 

28^  Idem,  au  general  Clausel,  cent  mille  francs. 

29°  Idem,  au  baron  Menneval,  cent  mille  francs. 

30*^  Idem,  a  Arnault,  auteur  de  Marius,  cent  mille  francs. 

31*^  Idem,  au  colonel  Marbot,  cent  mille  francs.  Je  I'engage  a  continuer  a  ecrire 
pour  la  defense  de  la  gloire  des  armees  frangaises,  et  a  en  confondre  les  calomniateurs  et 
les  apostats. 

32°  Idem,  au  baron  Bignon,  cent  mille  francs.  Je  I'engage  a  ecrire  I'histoire  de  la 
diplomatic  frangaise  de  1792  a  181 5. 

33*^  Idem,  a  Poggi  di  Talavo,  cent  mille  francs. 


APPENDIX   A  547 

34^  Idem,  au  chimrgien  Emmery,  cent  mille  francs. 

35**  Ces  sommes  seront  prises  sur  les  six  millions  que  j'ai  places  en  partant  de  Paris 
en  1 815,  en  sur  les  interets  a  raison  de  cinq  pour  cent  depuis  juillet  1815.  Les  comptes 
en  seront  arretes  avec  le  banquier  pas  les  comtes  Montholon,  Bertrand  et  Marchand. 

36"*  Tout  ce  que  ce  placement  produira  au  dela  de  la  somme  de  cinq  millions  six 
cent  mille  francs,  dont  il  a  ete  dispose  ci-dessus,  sera  distribue  en  gratifications  aux 
blesses  de  Waterloo,  et  aux  officiers  et  soldats  du  bataillon  de  I'ile  d'Elbe,  sur  un  etat 
arrete  par  Montholon,  Bertrand,  Drouot,  Cambronne  et  le  chirurgien  Larrey. 

37**  Ces  legs,  en  cas  de  mort,  seront  payes  aux  veuves  et  enfants,  et,  au  defaut  de 
ceux-ci,  rentreront  a  la  masse. 

III. 

T^  Mon  domaine  prive  etant  ma  propriete,  dont  aucune  loi  fran9aise  ne  m'a  prive, . 
que  je  sache,  le  compte  en  sera  demande  au  baron  de  la  Bouillerie,  qui  en  est  le 
tresorier  ;  il  doit  se  monter  a  plus  de  deux  cents  millions  de  francs ;  savoir  :  i**  le  porte- 
feuille  contenant  les  economies  que  j'ai,  pendant  quatorze  ans,  faites  sur  ma  liste  civile, 
les-quelles  se  sont  elevees  a  plus  de  douze  millions  par  an,  si  j'ai  bonne  memoire  ;  2^  ie 
produit  de  ce  portefeuille ;  3**  les  meubles  de  mes  palais,  tels  qu'ils  etaient  en  18 14;  les 
palais  de  Rome,  Florence,  Turin  compris.  Tous  ces  meubles  ont  ete  achetes  des  deniers 
des  revenus  de  la  liste  civile ;  4^  la  liquidation  de  mes  maisons  du  royaume  d'ltalie,  tels 
qu'argent,  argenterie,  bijoux,  meubles,  ecuries ;  les  comptes  en  seront  donnes  par  le 
prince  Eugene  et  I'intendant  de  la  couronne  Compagnoni. 

NAPOLEON. 
Deuxihne  feuille. 

2^  Je  legue  mon  domaine  prive,  moitie  aux  officiers  et  soldats  qui  restent  de  I'armee 
fran^aise  qui  ont  combattu  depuis  1792  3,1815  pour  la  gloire  et  I'independance  de  la 
nation ;  la  repartition  en  sera  faite  au  prorata  des  appointements  d'activite ;  moitie  aux 
villes  et  campagnes  d' Alsace,  de  Lorraine,  de  Franche-Comte,  de  Bourgogne,  de  I'lle-de- 
France,  de  Champagne,  Forez,  Dauphine,  qui  auraient  souffert  par  I'une  ou  I'autre  inva- 
sion. II  sera  de  cette  somme  preleve  un  million  pour  la  ville  de  Brienne  et  un  million 
pour  celle  de  Meri. 

J'institue  les  comtes  Montholon,  Bertrand  et  Marchand  mes  executeurs  testamen- 
taires. 

Ce  present  testament,  tout  ecrit  de  ma  propre  main,  est  signe'  et  scelle  de  mes  armes. 

{Sceau.)  NAPOLEON. 


ETAT  A  joint  a  mon  testament. 

Longwood,  lie  de  Sainte-Helene,  ce  15  avril  182 1. 

I. 

I**  Les  vases  sacres  qui  ont  servi  a  ma  chapelle  a  Longwood.* 

2**  Je  charge  I'abbe  Vignali  de  les  garder  et  de  les  remettre  a  mon  fils  quand  il  aura 
seize  ans. 

*  The  story  of  these  sacred  vessels  is  curious.  Shortly  after  his  return  to  Corsica,  the  Abbe  Vignali 
was  assassinated  in  a  vendetta,  and  his  heirs  sold  these  articles  without  scruple.  The  Duke  of  Padua,  in 
1832,  recovered  them,  and  sent  them  as  a  present  to  Prince  Napoleon. 


548        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

11. 

1^  Mes  armes;  savoir :  mon  epee,  celle  que  je  portals  a  Austerlitz,  le  sabre  de 
Sobieski,  mon  poignard,  mon  glaive,  mon  couteau  de  chasse,  mes  deux  paires  de  plstolets 
de  Versailles. 

2°  Mon  necessaire  d'or,  celui  qui  m'a  servi  le  matin  d'Ulm,  d'Austerlitz,  d'lena, 
d'Eylau,  de  Friedland,  de  Tile  de  Lobau,  de  la  Moskowa  et  de  Mont-Mirail;  sous  ce 
point  de  vue,  je  desire  qu'il  soit  precieux  a  mon  fils.  (Le  comte  Bertrand  en  est 
depositaire  depuis  1814.) 

3*^  Je  charge  le  comte  Bertrand  de  soigner  et  conserver  ces  objets,  et  de  les  remettre 
a  mon  fils  lorsqu'il  aura  seize  ans. 

III. 

i^  Trois  petites  caisses  d'acajou,  contenant ;  la  premiere,  trente-trois  tabatieres  ou 
bonbonnieres ;  la  deuxieme,  douze  boites  aux  armes  imperiales,  deux  petites  lunettes  et 
quatre  boites  trouvees  sur  la  table  de  Louis  XVIII,  aux  Tuileries,  le  20  mars  181 5  ; 
la  troisieme,  trois  tabatieres  ornees  de  medailles  d'argent,  a  I'usage  de  I'Empereur, 
et  divers  effets  de  toilette,  conformement  aux  etats  numerotes  I,  II,  III. 

2*^  Mes  lits  de  camp  dont  j'ai  fait  usage  dans  toutes  mes  campagnes. 

3^  Ma  lunette  de  guerre. 

4^  Mon  necessaire  de  toilette,  un  de  chacun  de  mes  uniformes,  une  douzaine  de 
chemises,  et  un  objet  complet  de  chacun  de  mes  habillements,  et  generalement  de  tout 
ce  qui  sert  a  ma  toilette. 

5"  Mon  lavabo. 

6^  Une  petite  pendule  qui  est  dans  ma  chambre  a  coucher  de  Longvvood. 

7*^  Mes  deux  montres  et  la  chaine  de  cheveux  de  I'lmperatrice. 

8°  Je  charge  Marchand,  mon  premier  valet  de  chambre,  de  garder  ces  objets,  et  de 
les  remettre  a  mon  fils  lorsqu'il  aura  seize  ans. 

IV 

1°  Mon  medailher. 

2*^  Mon  argenterie  et  ma  porcelaine  de  Sevres  dont  j'ai  fait  usage  a  Sainte-Helene. 
3°  Je  charge  le  comte  Montholon  de  garder  ces  objets,  et  de  les  remettre  a  mon  fils 
quand  il  aura  seize  ans. 

V. 

i^  Mes  trois  selles  et  brides,  mes  eperons  qui  m'ont  servi  a  Saint-Helene. 
2^  Mes  fusils  de  chasse,  au  nombre  de  cinq. 

3**  Je  charge  mon  chasseur  Noverraz  de  garder  ces  objets,  et  de  les  remettre  a  mon 
fils  quand  il  aura  seize  ans. 

VI. 

1°  Quatre  cents  volumes  choisis  dans  ma  bibliotheque,  parmi  ceux  qui  ont  le  plus 

servi  a  mon  usage. 

2"  Je  charge  Saint-Denis  de  les  garder,  et  de  les  remettre  a  mon  fils  quand  il  aura 

seize  ans. 

NAPOLEON. 

ETAT  (A). 

I'*  II  ne  sera  vendu  aucun  des  effets  qui  m'ont  servi;  le  surplus  sera  partage  entre 
mes  executeurs  testamentaires  et  mes  freres. 


APPENDIX   A  549 

2°  Marchand  conservera  mes  cheveux,  et  en  fera  faire  un  bracelet  avec  un  petit 
cadenas  en  or,  pour  etre  envoye  a  I'lmperatrice  Marie-Louise,  a  ma  mere,  et  a  chacun 
de  mes  freres,  soeurs,  neveux,  nieces,  au  cardinal,  et  un  plus  considerable  pour 
mon  fils. 

3''  Marchand  enverra  une  de  mes  paires  de  boucles  a  souliers,  en  or,  au  prince 
Joseph. 

4°  Une  petite  paire  de  boucles,  en  or,  a  jarretieres,  au  prince  Lucien. 

5*^  Une  boucle  de  col,  en  or,  au  prince  Jerome. 

ETAT  (A). 

Inventaire  de  mes  effets^  que  Marchand  gardera  pour  remettre  a  mon  fils. 

i^  Mon  necessaire  d'argent,  celui  qui  est  sur  ma  table,  garni  de  tous  ses  ustensiles, 
rasoirs,  etc. 

2"  Mon  reveille-matin  :  c'est  le  reveille-matin  de  Frederic  II,  que  j'ai  pris  a  Potsdam 
(dans  la  boite  n^  III). 

3°  Mes  deux  montres,  avec  la  chaine  des  cheveux  de  I'lmperatrice,  et  une  chaine  de 
mes  cheveux  pour  I'autre  montre.     Marchand  la  fera  faire  a  Paris. 

4^  Mes  deux  sceaux  (un  de  France,  enferme  dans  la  boite  n^  III). 
5^  La  petite  pendule  doree  qui  est  actuellement  dans  ma  chambre  a  coucher. 
6*^  Mon  lavabo,  son  pot  a  eau  et  son  pied. 

7^  Mes  tables  de  nuit,  celles  qui  me  servaient  en  France,  et  mon  bidet  de  vermeil. 
8''  Mes  deux  lits  de  fer,  mes  matelas  et  mes  couvertures,  s'ils  se  peuvent  conserver. 
9^  Mes  trois  flacons  d'argent  ou  Ton  mettait  mon  eau-de-vie  que  portaient  mes 
chasseurs  en  campagne. 

lo*'  Ma  lunette  de  France. 

1 1"  Mes  eperons  (deux  paires). 

12**  Trois  boites  d'acajou,  n*^^  I,  II,  III,  renfermant  mes  tabatieres  et  autres  objets. 

13°  Une  cassolette  en  vermeil. 

Lifige  de  toilette. 

6  chemises. — 6  mouchoirs. — 6  cravates. — 6  serviettes. — 6  paires  de  bas  de  sole. — 
4  cols  noirs. — 6  paires  de  chaussettes. — 2  paires  de  draps  de  batiste.* — 2  tales  d'oreiller. 
— 2  robes  de  chambre. — 2  pantalons  de  nuit. —  i  paire  de  bretelles. — 4  culottes-veste  de 
casimir  blanc. — 6  madras. — 6  gilets  de  flanelle. — 4  cale^ons. — 6  paires  de  guetres. — 
I  petite  boite  pleine  de  mon  tabac. — i  boucle  de  col  en  or. — ^^i  paire  de  boucles  a 
jarretieres  en  or. — i  paire  de  boucles  en  or  a  souliers,  renfermees  dans  la  petite  boite 
n«  III. 

*  En  verifiant  I'etat  de  la  paire  de  draps  qui  enveloppaient  I'Empereur  sur  son  lit  de  mort,  S.  A.  I. 
le  prince  Victor  remarqua  qu'au  centre  de  chacun  des  draps  un  B  majuscule,  surmonte  d'une  couronne 
royale,  etait  legerement  brode. 

Cette  paire  de  draps  ayant  ete  prise  aux  Tuileries  au  moment  du  depart  precipite  pour  Rochefort,  il 
etait  de  toute  evidence  que  Napoleon  s'etait  involontairement  approprie  les  draps  de  Louis  XVIII,  qui, 
dans  son  depart  egalement  precipite  pour  Lille,  sous  I'escorte  des  compagnies  rouges  de  Marmont,  avait 
forcement  cru  devoir  se  preoccuper  du  soin  de  son  auguste  personne  plutot  que  de  celui  de  sa  garde-robe. 
Aussi,  et  le  fait  ne  manque  certes  pas  d'originalite,  pendant  les  Cent-Jours^  I'Empereur  des  Fran^ais,  lors 
de  son  court  sejour  aux  Tuileries,  coucha  dans  les  draps  de  lit  du  roi  de  France,  et  ce  furent  aussi  ces  draps 
de  lit,  marques  de  la  couronne  des  Bourbons,  qui  servirent,  pour  ainsi  dire,  de  linceul  a  Napoleon. 

(A.  Dayot.) 


550        THE    LIFE    OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


Habillement. 

I  uniforme  de  chasseur. —  i  uniforme  de  grenadier. —  i  uniforme  de  garde  national. — 
2  chapeaux."^ — i  capote  gris  et  verte. — i  manteau  bleu  (celui  que  j'avais  a  Marengo). — 

1  zibeline,  pelisse  verte. — 2  paires  de  souliers. — 

2  paires  de  bottes. — i  paire  de  pantoufles. — 6  cein- 

turons. 

NAPOLEON. 

ETAT   (B). 

Inventaire  des  effets  que  fat  laisses  chez 
M.  le  comte  de  Turemie. 

I  sabre  de  Sobieski.  (C'est  par  erreur  qu'il  est 
porte  sur  I'etat  A ;  c'est  le  sabre  que  I'Empereur 
portait  a  Aboukir,  qui  est  entre  les  mains  de  M.  le 
comte  Bertrand). —  i  grand  collier  de  la  Legion 
d'honneur. — i  epee  en  vermeil. —  i  glaive  de  consul. 
—  I  epee  en  fer.  —  i  ceinturon  de  velours. —  i 
collier  de  la  Toison  d'or. —  i  petit  necessaire  en 
acier. — i  veilleuse  en  argent. —  i  poignee  de  sabre 
antique. —  i  chapeau  a  la  Henri  IV  et  une  toque, 
les  dentelles  de  I'Empereur. —  i  petit  medaillier. 
— 2  tapis  turcs. — 2  manteaux  de  velours  cramoisi 
brodes,  avec  vestes  et  culottes. 

1°  Je  donne  a  mon  fils  le  sabre  de  Sobieski. — 
Idem  J  le  collier  de  la  Legion  d'honneur. — Ide?n, 
I'epee  en  vermeil. — Idem,  le  glaive  de  consul. — 
Idein,  I'epee  en  fer. — Idem,  le  collier  de  la  Toison 
d'or. — Idem,  le  chapeau  a  la  Henri  IV  et  la  toque. 
— Ide7tt,  le  necessaire  d'or  pour  les  dents,  reste 
chez  le  dentiste. 

2^  A  I'imperatrice  Marie- Louise,  mes  dentelles. 
— A  Madame,  la  veilleuse  en  argent. — Au  cardinal, 
le  petit  necessaire  en  acier. — Au  prince  Eugene,  le 
bougeoir  en  vermeil. — A  la  princesse  Pauline,  le 
petit  medaillier. — A  la  reine  de  Naples,  un  petit 
tapis  turc. — A  la  reine  Hortense,  un  petit  tapis 


Hat    of   Napoleon,    and    Uniform 
of  the  Emperor,  with  the  Epau- 
lettes of  a  General   Officer  and 
the  Star  of  the  Legion  of  Honour. 
(From  the  Museum  of  Sens.) 


*  II  nous  a  ete  permis  de  voir  tout  dernierement  un 
des  chapeaux  que  Napoleon  portait  a  la  campagne  de 
Russie.  Le  parchemin  documentaire  qui  I'accompagne 
explique  ainsi  sa  singuliere  destinee  : 

"Voici  de  quelle  sorte  ce  chapeau  parvint  dans  mes 
mains.  A  I'epoque  de  cette  desastreuse  campagne  de  Russie,  mon  epouse  etait  employee  dans  la 
buanderie  de  la  maison  de  I'Empereur.  Elle  s'adressa  par  hasard  a  M.  Gervais,  conservateur  de  la 
garde-robe  de  I'Empereur,  et  lui  demanda  quelques  vieux  chapeaux  pour  faire  des  poignees  dont  les 
repasseuses  se  servaient  alors  pour  tenir  leur  fer.  II  lui  donna  deux  chapeaux  de  I'Empereur,  dont  I'un, 
celui-ci,  que  j'ai  conserve,  avait  servi  pendant  cette  campagne.  Elle  donna  I'autre  a  une  personne  qui 
avait  desire  I'avoir.     Telle  est  la  verite.  "  Signe  J.  DULUD." 

Ce  chapeau  est  en  ce  moment  la  propriete  de  M.  Georges  Thierry.     (A.  Dayot.) 


APPENDIX   A  551 

turc. — Au    prince    Jerome,   la   poignee   de  sabre    antique. — Au    prince    Joseph,    un 
manteau   brode,  veste   et   culotte. — Au  prince   Lucien,    un   manteau   brode,    veste   et 

^^^^"^•*  NAPOLEON. 

Ce  23  avril  1821.     Longwood. 

Ceci  est  mon  codicille  oic  acte  de  ma  derniere  volonte. 

Sur  les  fonds  remis  en  or  a  I'lmperatrice  Marie-Louise,  ma  tres  chere  et  bien-aimee 
epouse,  a  Orleans,  en  18 14,  elle  reste  me  devoir  deux  millions,  dont  je  dispose  par  le 
present  codicille,  afin  de  recompenser  mes  plus  fideles  serviteurs,  que  je  recommande  du 
reste  a  la  protection  de  ma  chere  Marie-Louise. 

1°  Je  recommande  a  I'lmperatrice  de  faire  restituer  au  comte  Bertrand  les  trente 
mille  francs  de  rente  qu'il  possede  dans  le  duche  de  Parme  et  sur  le  mont  Napoleon  de 
Milan,  ainsi  que  les  arrerages  echus. 

2^  Je  lui  fais  la  meme  recommandation  pour  le  due  d'Istrie,  la  fille  de  Duroc,  et 
autres  de  mes  serviteurs  qui  me  sont  restes  fideles  et  qui  me  sont  toujours  chers ;  elle  les 
connait. 

3°  Je  legue,  sur  les  deux  millions  ci-dessus  mentionnes,  trois  cent  mille  francs  au 
comte  Bertrand,  sur  lesquels  il  versera  cent  mille  francs  dans  la  caisse  du  tre'sorier,  pour 
etre  employes,  selon  mes  dispositions,  a  des  legs  de  conscience. 

4°  Je  legue  deux  cent  mille  francs  au  comte  Montholon,  sur  lesquels  il  versera  cent 
mille  francs  dans  la  caisse  du  tresorier,  pour  le  meme  usage  que  ci-dessus. 

5^  Idem^  deux  cent  mille  francs  au  comte  Las  Cases,  sur  lesquels  il  versera  cent 
mille  francs  dans  la  caisse  du  tresorier,  pour  le  meme  usage  que  ci-dessus. 

6^  Idem^  a  Marchand,  cent  mille  francs,  sur  lesquels  il  versera  cinquante  mille  francs 
dans  la  caisse,  pour  le  meme  usage  que  ci-dessus. 

7^  Au  maire  d'Ajaccio,  au  commencement  de  la  Revolution,  Jean-Jerome  Levi, 
ou  a  sa  veuve,  enfants  ou  petits-enfants,  cent  mille  francs. 

S'^  A  la  fille  de  Duroc,  cent  mille  francs. 

9^  Au  fils  de  Bessieres,  due  d'Istrie,  cent  mille  francs. 
10**  Au  general  Drouot,  cent  mille  francs. 
1 1"  Au  comte  Lavalette,  cent  mille  francs. 

1 2^  Idem^  cent  mille  francs,  savoir :  vingt-cinq  mille  francs  a  Pieron,  mon  maitre 
d'hotel ;  vingt-cinq  mille  francs  a  Noverray,  mon  chasseur ;  vingt-cinq  mille  francs  a 
Saint-Denis,  le  garde  de  mes  livres;  vingt-cinq  mille  francs  a  Santini,  mon  ancien 
huissier. 

1 3^  Idem^  cent  mille  francs ;  savoir :  quarante  mille  francs  a  Planat,  mon  officier 
d'ordonnance ;  vingt  mille  francs  a  Hebert,  dernierement  concierge  a  Rambouillet,  et 
qui  etait  de  ma  chambre  en  Egypte  ;  vingt  mille  francs  a  Lavigne,  que  etait  derniere- 
ment concierge  d'une  de  mes  ecuries,  et  qui  etait  mon  piqueur  en  Egypte;  vingt 
mille  francs  a  Jeannet-Dervieux,  qui  etait  mon  piqueur  des  ecuries,  et  me  servait 
en  Egypte. 

*  II  s'agit  ici  des  deux  manteaux  du  Sacre,  en  velours  cramoisi. 

Dans  I'inventaire  de  la  garde-robe  de  I'Empereur  qui  sert  d'appendice  au  Napoleon  chez  lui  de  M. 
Frederic  Masson,  nous  lisons  que  I'un  de  ces  manteaux,  celui  du  grand  habillement,  est  brode  d'or  et  seme 
d'abeilles.     Le  manteau  du  petit  habillement  est  brode  d'or  et  d'argent. 

Dans  les  broderies  sont  enlacees  des  branches  d'olivier,  de  laurier  et  de  chene  qui  entourent  la  lettre 
N.     Une  plaque  de  la  Legion  d'honneur  est  posee  sur  le  cote.     (A.  Dayot.) 


552        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

14"  Deux  cent  mille  francs  seront  distribues  en  aumones  aux  habitants  de  Brienne-le- 
Chateau  qui  ont  le  plus  souffert. 

Les  trois  cent  mille  francs  restants  seront  distribues  aux  officiers  et  soldats  du 
bataillon  de  ma  garde  de  I'ile  d'Elbe  actuellement  vivants,  ou  a  leurs  veuves  ou  enfants, 
au  prorata  des  appointements,  et  selon  I'etat  que  sera  arrete  par  mes  executeurs 
testamentaires  ;  les  amputes  ou  blesses  grievement  auront  le  double.  L'etat  en  sera 
arrete  par  Larrey  et  Emmery. 

Ce  codicille  est  ecrit  tout  de  ma  propre  main,  signe  et  scelle  de  mes  armes. 

NAPOLEON. 

Ce  24  avril  1821.     Longwood. 

Ceci  est  mon  codicille^  ou  acte  de  ma  derniere  volonte. 

Sur  la  liquidation  de  ma  liste  civile  d'ltalie,  telle  qu'argent,  bijoux,  argenterie,  linge, 
meubles,  ecuries,  dont  le  vice-roi  est  depositaire,  et  qui  m'appartiennent,  je  dispose  de 
deux  millions  que  je  legue  a  mes  plus  fideles  serviteurs.  J'espere  que,  sans  s'autoriser 
d'aucune  raison,  mon  fils  Eugene  Napoleon  les  acquittera  fidelement ;  il  ne  peut  oublier 
les  quarante  millions  de  francs  que  je  lui  ai  donnes,  soit  en  Italic,  soit  par  le  partage  de 
la  succession  de  sa  mere. 

1°  Sur  ces  deux  millions,  je  legue  au  comte  Bertrand  trois  cent  mille  francs,  dont  il 
versera  cent  mille  francs  dans  la  caisse  du  tresorier  pour  etre  employes,  selon  mes  dispo- 
sitions, a  I'acquit  de  legs  de  conscience. 

2°  Au  comte  Montholon,  deux  cent  mille  francs,  dont  il  versera  cent  mille  francs  a 
la  caisse,  pour  le  meme  usage  que  ci-dessus. 

3^  Au  comte  Las  Cases,  deux  cent  mille  francs,  dont  il  versera  cent  mille  francs  a 
la  caisse,  pour  le  meme  usage  que  ci-dessus. 

4^  A  Marchand,  cent  mille  francs,  dont  il  versera  cinquante  mille  francs  a  la  caisse, 
pour  le  meme  usage  que  ci-dessus. 

5''  Au  comte  Lavalette,  cent  mille  francs. 

6°  Au  general  Hogendorf,  Hollandais,  mon  aide  de  camp  refugie  au  Bresil,  cent 
mille  francs. 

7^  A  mon  aide  de  camp  Corbineau,  cinquante  mille  francs. 
8*^  A  mon  aide  de  camp  Caffarelli,  cinquante  mille  francs. 
9^  A  mon  aide  de  camp  Dejean,  cinquante  mille  francs, 
lo*'  A  Percy,  chirurgien  en  chef  a  Waterloo,  cinquante  mille  francs. 
11"  Cinquante  mille  francs;  savoir:  dix  mille  francs  a  Pieron,  mon  maitre  d'hotel ; 
dix  mille  francs  a  Saint-Denis,  mon  premier  chasseur ;   dix   mille  francs  a  Noverraz ; 
dix  mille  francs  a  Cursot,  mon  maitre  d'office;  dix  mille  francs  a  Archambaud,  mon 
piqueur. 

12°  Au  baron  Menneval,  cinquante  mille  francs. 
13"  Au  due  d'Istrie,  fils  de  Bessieres,  cinquante  mille  francs. 
14°  A  la  fiUe  de  Duroc,  cinquante  mille  francs. 
15^  Aux  enfants  de  Labedoyere,  cinquante  mille  francs. 
.  1 6^  Aux  enfants  de  Mouton-Duvernet,  cinquante  mille  francs. 
1 7**  Aux  enfants  du  brave  et  vertueux  general  Travot,  cinquante  mille  francs. 
i8*>  Aux  enfants  de  Chartraud,  cinquante  mille  francs. 
19^  Au  general  Crambronne,  cinquante  mille  francs. 
20*^  Au  general  Lefevre-Desnouettes,  cinquante  mille  francs. 


APPENDIX   A  553 

2i".  Pour  etre  repartis  entre  les  proscrits  qui  errent  en  pays  etrangers,  Frangais,  ou 
Italiens,  ou  Beiges,  ou  Hollandais,  ou  Espagnols,  ou  des  departements  du  Rhin,  sur 
ordonnances  de  mes  executeurs  testamentaires,  cent  mille  francs. 

2  2°  Pour  etre  repartis  entre  les  amputes  ou  blesses  grievement  de  Ligny,  Waterloo, 
encore  vivants,  sur  des  etats  dresses  par  mes  executeurs  testamentaires,  auxquels  seront 
adjoints  Cambronne,  Larrey,  Percy  et  Emmery ;  il  sera  donne  double  a  la  garde,  quad- 
ruple a  ceux  de  I'ile  d'Elbe,  deux  cent  mille  francs. 

Ce  codicille  est  ecrit  entierement  de  ma  propre  main,  signe  et  scelle  de  mes  armes. 

NAPOLEON. 

Ce  24  avril  1821.     Longwood. 
Ceci  est  un  troisihne  codicille  a  mon  testament  du  75  avril. 

i^  Parmi  les  diamants  de  la  couronne  qui  furent  remis  en  1814,  il  s'en  trouvait  pour 
cinq  a  six  cent  mille  francs  qui  n'en  etaient  pas,  et  faisaient  partie  de  mon  avoir  particu- 
lier ;  on  les  fera  rentrer  pour  acquitter  mes  legs. 

2^  J'avais  chez  le  banquier  Torlonia  de  Rome  deux  a  trois  cent  mille  francs  en  lettres 
de  change,  produits  de  mes  revenus  de  File  d'Elbe  depuis  181 5 ;  le  sieur  de  la  Perruse, 
quoiqu'il  ne  fCit  plus  mon  tresorier  et  n'eut  pas  de  caractere,  a  tire  a  lui  cette  somme ; 
on  la  lui  fera  restiteur. 

3^  Je  legue  au  due  d'Istrie  trois  cent  mille  francs,  dont  seulement  cent  mille  francs 
reversibles  a  la  veuve,  si  le  due  etait  mort  lors  de  T  execution  du  legs.  Je  desire,  si  cela 
n'a  aucun  inconvenient,  que  le  due  epouse  la  fille  de  Duroc. 

4"  Je  legue  a  la  duchesse  de  Frioul,  fille  de  Duroc,  deux  cent  mille  francs ;  si  elle 
etait  morte  avant  I'execution  du  legs,  il  ne  sera  rien  donne  a  la  mere. 

5^  Je  legue  au  g6n6ral  Rigaud,  celui  qui  a  ete  proscrit,  cent  mille  francs. 

6*^  Je  legue  a  Boisnod,  commissaire  ordonnateur,  cent  mille  francs. 

7^^  Je  legue  aux  enfants  du  general  Letort,  tue  dans  la  campagne  de  18 15,  cent  mille 
francs. 

8^  Ces  huit  cent  mille  francs  de  legs  seront  comme  s'ils  etaient  portes  a  la  suite  de 
I'article  36  de  mon  testament,  ce  qui  porterait  a  six  millions  quatre  cent  mille  francs  la 
somme  des  legs  dont  je  dispose  par  mon  testament,  sans  comprendre  les  donations  faites 
par  mon  second  codicille. 

Ceci  est  ecrit  de  ma  propre  main,  signe  et  scelle  des  mes  armes. 

{Sceau.)  NAPOLEON. 

Au  dos  : 
Ceci  est  mon  troisieme  codicille  a  mon  testament,  tout  entier  ecrit  de  ma  main,  signe 
et  scelle  de  mes  armes. 

Sera  ouvert  le  meme  jour  et  immediatement  apres  I'ouverture  de  mon  testament. 

NAPOLEON. 

Ce  24  avril  1821.     Longwood. 
Ceci  est  un  qiiatrieme  codicille  a  mon  testament. 

Par  les  dispositions  que  nous  avons  faites  precedemment,  nous  n'avons  pas  rempli 
toutes  nos  obligations,  ce  qui  nous  a  decide  a  faire  ce  quatrieme  codicille. 

1°  Nous  le'guons  au  fils  ou  petit-fils  du  baron  Dutheil,  lieutenant  general  d'artillerie, 
ancien  seigneur  de  Saint-Andre,  qui  a  commande  I'ecole  d'Auxonne  avant  la  Revolution, 


554        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

la  somme  de  100,000  (cent  mille  francs),  comme  souvenir  de  reconnaissance  pour  les 
soins  que  ce  brave  general  a  pris  de  nous,  lorsque  nous  etions  comme  lieutenant  et  capi- 
taine  sous  ses  ordres. 

2°  Idem^  au  fils  ou  petit-fils  du  general  Dugommier,  qui  a  commande  en  chef  I'armee 
de  Toulon,  la  somme  de  cent  mille  francs  (100,000) ;  nous  avons,  sous  ses  ordres,  dirige 
ce  siege  et  commande  I'artillerie ;  c'est  un  temoignage  de  souvenir  pour  les  marques 
d'estime,  d'affection  et  d'amitie  que  nous  a  donnees  ce  brave  et  intrepide  general. 

3*^  Idem^  nous  leguons  cent  mille  francs  (100,000)  au  fils  ou  petit-fils  du  depute  a  la 
Convention  Gasparin,  representant  du  peuple  a  I'armee  de  Toulon,  pour  avoir  protege  et 
sanctionne  de  son  autorite  le  plan  que  nous  avons  donne,  qui  a  valu  la  prise  de  cette 
ville,  et  qui  etait  contraire  a  celui  envoye  par  le  Comite  de  salut  public.  Gasparin  nous  a 
mis,  par  sa  protection,  a  I'abri  des  persecutions  de  I'ignorance  des  etats-majors  qui  com- 
mandaient  I'armee  avant  I'arrivee  de  mon  ami  Dugommier. 

4°  Idem^  nous  leguons  cent  mille  francs  (100,000)  a  la  veuve,  fils  ou  petit-fils  de  notre 
aide  de  camp  Muiron,  tue  a  cotes  a  Arcole,  nous  couvrant  de  son  corps. 

5°  Idefn,  (10,000)  dix  mille  francs  au  sous-officier  Cantillon,  qui  a  essuye  un  proces 
comme  prevenu  d'avoir  voulu  assassiner  lord  Wellington,  ce  dont  il  a  e'te  declare  innocent. 
Cantillon  avait  autant  de  droit  d'assassiner  cet  oligarque  que  celui-ci  de  m'envoyer  pour 
perir  sur  le  rocher  de  Sainte-Helene. 

Wellington,  qui  a  propose  cet  attentat,  cherchait  alejustifier  sur  I'interet  de  la  Grande- 
Bretagne.  Cantillon,  si  vraiment  il  eut  assassine  le  lord,  se  serait  couvert  et  aurait  ete 
justifie  par  les  memes  motifs,  I'interet  de  la  France,  de  se  defaire  d'un  general  qui  d'ailleurs 
avait  viole  la  capitulation  de  Paris,  et  par  la  s'etait  rendu  responsable  du  sang  des  martyrs 
Ney,  Labedoyere,  etc.,  et  du  crime  d'avoir  depouille  les  musees,  contre  ie  texte  des 
traites. 

6°  Ces  400,000  francs  (quatre  cent  mille  francs)  seront  ajoutes  aux  six  millions  quatre 
cent  mille  francs  dont  nous  avons  dispose,  et  porteront  nos  legs  a  six  millions  huit  cent 
mille  francs  ;  ces  quatre  cent  mille  francs  doivent  etre  consideres  comme  faisant  partie  de 
notre  testament,  article  35,  et  suivre  en  tout  le  meme  sort  que  les  autres  legs. 

7"  Les  neuf  mille  livres  sterling  que  nous  avons  donnees  au  comte  et  a  la  comtesse 
Montholon  doivent,  si  elles  ont  ete  soldees  ;  etre  deduites  et  portees  en  compte  sur  les 
legs  que  nous  leur  faisons  par  notre  testament ;  si  elles  n'ont  pas  ete  acquittees,  nos  billets 
seront  annules. 

8°  Moyennant  le  legs  fait  par  notre  testament  au  comte  Montholon,  la  pension  de 
vingt  mille  francs  accordee  a  sa  femme  est  annulee  ;  le  comte  Montholon  est  charge  de  la 
lui  payer. 

9°  L'administration  d'une  pareille  succession,  jusqu'a  son  entiere  liquidation,  exigeant 
des  frais  de  bureau,  de  courses,  de  missions,  de  consultations,  de  plaidoiries,  nous  enten- 
dons  que  nos  executeurs  testamentaires  retiendront  trois  pour  cent  sur  tous  les  legs,  soit 
sur  les  sommes  portees  dans  les  codicilles,  soit  sur  les  deux  cents  millions  de  francs  du 
domaine  prive. 

10"  Les  sommes  provenant  de  ces  retenues  seront  deposees  dans  les  mains  d'un 
tresorier,  et  depensees  sur  mandat  de  nos  executeurs  testamentaires. 

11°  Si  les  sommes  provenant  desdites  retenues  n'etaient  pas  sufiisantes  pour  pourvoir 
aux  frais,  il  y  sera  pourvu  aux  depens  des  trois  executeurs  testamentaires  et  du  tresorier, 
chacun  dans  la  proportion  du  legs  que  nous  leur  avons  fait  par  notre  testament  et 
codicille. 


APPENDIX   A  555 

1 2°  Si  les  sommes  provenant  des  susdites  retenues  sont  au-dessus  des  besoins,  le  restant 
sera  partage  entre  nos  trois  executeurs  testamentaires  et  le  tresorier,  dans  le  rapport  de 
leurs  legs  respectifs. 

13°  Nous  nommons  le  comte  Las  Cases,  et  a  son  defaut,  son  fils,  et  a  son  defaut,  le 
general  Drouot,  tresorier. 

14°  Ce  present  codicille  est  entierement  ecrit  de  notre  main,  signe  et  scelle  de  nos 
armes. 

NAPOLEON. 


THE    PROFILE   OF    NAPOLEON   ON    HIS    DEATH-BED. 


APPENDIX    B 


SOME   SPECIMENS   OF   NAPOLEON'S   WRITING 

A  CONSIDERABLE  number  of  autographs  and  examples  of  the  writing  of 
-^  ^  Napoleon  at  different  periods  of  his  career  have  already  been  included  in  the  body 
of  this  volume,  but  a  few  additional  samples  may  be  added  to  make  the  collection 
more  complete. 

He  certainly,  at  an  early  period,  purposely  wrote  illegibly  so  as  to  disguise  his 
incorrect  spelling ;  and  so  his  handwriting  was  formed  :  he  devoted  little  care  to  make 
it  legible,  even  after  he  was  more  confident  than  at  first  how  to  spell  his  words.  His 
signature  he  varied  very  considerably,  and  he  seems  to  have  thought  that  any  scrawl 
would  suffice. 

His  writing  became  exceptionally  hard  to  be  read,  and  it  must  have  taxed  his  corre- 
spondents' ingenuity  to  decipher  his  letters.  He  wrote  hastily,  his  thoughts  outrunning 
the  execution  of  the  characters  which  were  designed  to  give  expression  to  them. 


556 


APPENDIX    B  557 

Here  is  a  curious  specimen,  terribly  illegible,  of  the  14th  July,  1797  : — 


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558        THE    LIFE   OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


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56o        THE    LIFE   OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


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-i^^i/^^^.^ 


yUu-^/^^ 


APPENDIX   B 


561 


Here  is  the  date  "29  Nivose,"  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  RepubUc  {i.e.  January  19, 
1796),  to  a  letter  addressed  to  General  Clarke,  then  the  Minister  of  War,  in  which  he 
proposed  his  scheme  for  the  invasion  of  Italy.  Soon  after  he  received  his  commission 
to  execute  it,  and  the  result  was  the  memorable  campaign  of  1796,  which  established  his 
military  reputation  and  supremacy. 


^$'/!^itm 


The  black  N.  is  from  Madrid,  written  December  7th,  i8c8:  — 


The  next  bold  scribble  is  of  the  i8th  April,  1809,  appended  to  a  letter  written  at 
Donauwerth,  to  Massena  : — 


This  scrawl  is  from  the  camp  at  Ratisbon,  on  the  24th  April,  1809,  and  is  the 
signature  to  his  proclamation  to  the  army.  It  ends  thus,  "  Avanl  qu'un  mois  soit  ecoule', 
je  serai  a  Vienne  "  : — 


2  o 


562        THE    LIFE   OF   NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 

His  signature  a  fortnight  later,  at  Vienna,  in  the  palace  of  Schonbrunn,  May  13th,  is 
here  given : — 


Signature  to  an  order  at  Moscow,  12th  September,  18 12  :- 


The   Emperor's  signature,  at  three  o'clock   in   the  morning,   on   September    21st, 
1812:— 


A  German  graphologist,  Adolf  Hense,  has  been  pleased  to  publish  a  critique  upon 
the  signatures  of  Napoleon  at  various  periods  in  his  career.     Of  that  given  below  Hense 


says — "  The   hasty  and  laconic   signature   of  one   like  a  Spartan " ;  and  of  the  next, 
"  The  daring  conqueror  throws  back  his  head,  and  escalades  the  mountain."     For  my 


APPENDIX    B 


563 


own  part  I  do  not  attribute  much  value  to  these  estimates.  The  bias  of  acquaintance 
with  the  history  of  the  writer  must  affect  the  decision  as  to  the  character  of  the  writing. 
If  he  had  not  known  that  it  was  Napoleon's  handwriting,  he  would  no  doubt  have  given 
entirely  opposite  estimates. 

Finally,  this  is  Napoleon's  writing  on  S.  Helena,  1818  : — 


JSJ'ME  MES  i'jfAEJl^S  £r  ylAf/S  DE  CRCIRE    TOUT  C£  QUE  LE 
DOCTEl/It  O'M^Ji^  JLEl/X  DTRyi  TtSL^TfVEMENr  A  ZA  PO^IT/O^f  aV 

yjT  2a  ntom^  Er  ai/x  ssntzmsits  que  jz  cojvsekvs  " 


^  X^i\uH^<^oC^ 


INDEX 


Abdication  of  Francis  II.,  322. 

—  Napoleon(first),473,475,48o;  (second), 513-14. 
Aboukir,  Battle  of  (first),  179-80 ;  (second),  195. 
Abrantes,  Duke  of.     See  Junot. 

Acre,  189-90. 

Addington,  Ministry  of  Mr.,  261. 

Affection  inspired  by  Napoleon,  236-7,  503. 

Aix,  479. 

Ajaccio,  2,  30,  35-8,  56,  58,  62,  64,  65. 

—  Emperor  of  Russia,  332,  347-51,  376,    392, 

4CO-1,  418,  433-4,  437,  451,  462,  482. 
Alexandria,  178,  197. 
Alvinzi,  General,  135,  147. 
Amiens,  Peace  of,  258. 
Antibes,  94,  484. 

Antommarchi,  Doctor,  525,  530-4,  535. 
Apocryphal  letters,  358,  389. 
Apotheosis  of  Napoleon,  537,  538. 
Ar9is,  S.  Aube,  466. 
Areola,  136. 
Arena,  62,  85,  249. 
Arezzo,  355. 

Arms  of  Buonaparte,  480. 
Army,  Reorganisation  of,  123. 

—  Proclamations  to,  126,  129,  158,  176,  191,  338, 

340,  485,  496. 
Arndt,  323,  444. 
Arnott,  Doctor,  530,  534,  535. 
Artois,  Comte  d',  486. 
Aspern,  Battle  of,  301-5. 
Assassination,  Fear  of,  in  Napoleon,  247. 
Aubry,  96-7. 

Auerstadt,  Battle  of,  327-8, 
Augereau,  124,  134,  160-1,   164,  167,  311,  393, 

450,  469,  478. 
Austerlitz,  Battle  of,  301-5. 

Austrian  Generals— their  incompetence,  124,  139. 
Autun,  12,  14. 
Auxonne,  32-4,  39-43. 
Avignon,  69,  478. 
202 


Bacciochi,  172,  220.     See  Elise  Bonaparte. 
Baden,  Elector  created  Grand  Duke,  306, 322,  m. 
Barclay  de  Tholy,  439. 
Barras,  78,  80,  83,  88,  96,  105,  107-10,  112,  115, 

156,  159-61,  166,  207,  214-15,  526. 
Bassano,  Duke  of,  310.     See  Maret. 
Bastia,  35-8,  45,  49,  65,  66. 
Bathurst,  Mr.,  Death  of,  268. 
Bautzen,  Battle  of,  450-1. 
Bavaria,  Elector  created  King,  306,  322,  373. 
Bayonne,  361-5,  Z^l- 
Beaucaire,  Souper  de,  6S. 
Beauharnais,  Eugene  de,  119,  171,  187,  211,299, 

307,  356,  401,  405,  429,  460. 

—  Plortense,  116,  401,  427. 

—  Josephine  de.     See  Josephine. 

—  Marquis  de,  115. 
Beaulieu,  .128. 
Bellerophon,  272,  515,  517. 
Belluno,  Duke  of,  310.     .9^^  Victor. 
Benevento,  Prince  of,  310.     See  Talleyrand. 
Bennigsen,  General,  339-40,  347,  372. 
Beresina,  Passage  of  the,  442. 

Berg  and  Cleves,  Grand  Duke  of,  310,  322.     See 

Murat. 
Berlin,  328,  332,  336,  455-6. 
Bernadotte,  General,  124,  169,  235,  299,  310,  393, 

434-5,  449,  456,  45^,  465- 
Berthier,  General,  124,  194,  310,  361,  392,  409, 

440,  473,  527. 
Bertrand,  Comte  de,  519,  535,  537. 
Bessieres,  370,  393,  440. 
Blame  cast  by  Napoleon  on  others,  182,  217,  234, 

527- 
BlUcher,  Marshal,  456,  458,  463-6,  497,  499,  505, 

510,  515. 
Borodino,  Battle  of,  439. 
Bou,  Mile.,  24,  41. 
Bourrienne,  14,  18,  50,  79,  96,  100,  153,  182,  187, 

190-2,  194,  216,  218,  226,235,  239-40,  246, 

250,  290,  321,  334,  402,  423. 


565 


566 


THE    LIFE   OF   NAPOLEON   BONAPARTE 


Brienne,  12,  14,  18,  26,  464. 
Brueys,  Admiral,  176,  180,  182, 
Brussels,  496. 
Buonaparte,  Arms  of,  480. 

—  Origin  of  the  family,  T-2,  5-6. 

—  Caroline,  8,  29,  66-7,  82,  223,  280,  318,  449, 

483- 

—  Charles,  6,  12,  20. 

—  Elise,  8,  29,  32,  53-4,  82,  172,  219,  220,  280, 

298,  310,  318,  530. 

—  Jerome,  8,  307,  314-5,  318,  393. 

—  Joseph,  7-8,  12,  13,  29,  30,  40,  61,  64,  73,  100, 

no,    129,    165,    171,    218-9,    286,    309-10, 
316-7,  375-6,  429,  469. 

—  Laetitia,  7-8,29-30,  172,  218-19,  313-14,  483. 

—  Louis,  8,  29,  32,  39,  43,  82,  94-6,  no,  124, 

172,  289,  313-17,  333,  382-90. 

—  Lucien,  8,  29,  32,  58,  61-2,  67,  73,  82,  96,  171, 

207-9,  212,  220,  251,  312-13,  318,  490,  508, 
510,  513,  515. 

—  Marianne,  8,  67. 

—  Napoleon.    For  Life,  sc^e  Contents  of  Chapters. 

—  Callousness  of,  80,  197. 

—  Coarseness,  251,  271-2,  427,  429. 

—  Cruelty,  183,  187-8,  191,  197,  378. 

—  Disbelief  in  principles,  246. 

—  Hypocrisy,  145,  244,  371. 

—  Jealousy,  322-3. 

—  Kindliness,  17-18. 

—  Peevishness,  15,  16,  18,  21-3,  31,  412. 

—  Religious  ideas,  253,  257,  533, 

—  Timidity,  247-8,  264. 

—  Vulgarity,  280. 

—  Pauline,  8,  30,  67,  82,  loi,  172,  221,  2S0,  310, 

318,  479,  483. 
Buttafuoco,  38,  40,  56. 

Cadore,  Duke  of,  310.     See  Champagny. 
Cadoudal,  George,  224,  262,  267. 
Caesar's  Commentaries,  26,  112. 
Cagliari,  58. 
Cairo,  180,  182-3,  I94- 
Callousness  of  Napoleon,  80,  197. 
Calvi,  66,  85. 

Cambaceres,  224,  248,  264,  311,  400,  436,  490. 
Campbell,  Sir  Neil,  476,  481,  483. 
Campo-Formio,  Treaty  of,  154,  163-4. 
Candles,  Blessed,  412. 

Canino,  Prince  of,  313,  318.     See  Lucien  Bona- 
parte. 
Canova,  221,  410. 
Cant,  Liberal,  133,  371. 
Cantillon,  530, 

Caps  of  Liberty  removed,  240, 
Caracolli,  249-50. 
Carbone,  Camilla,  8. 
Cardinals,  414. 


Carnot,   18,   109,  159,   165,  489,  491,  508,   510, 

5". 
Carteaux,  74,  76,  107. 
Caricatures,  263,  271,  375,  472,  538. 
Casablanca,  57. 

Castiglione,  Duke  of,  311,     See  Augereau. 
Castlereagh,  Lord,  465,  481,  516. 
Catechisme  Imperial,  377. 
Caulaincourt,  310,  401,  436,  463,  474,  490, 
Ceracchi  and  Arena,  236. 
Certificates,  False,   6,  7,   38,  I73,  94,    loi,    172, 

219. 
Champagny,  310,  377,  391. 
Chardon,  Abbe,  12. 
Charles,  Archduke,    136,    147-8,  299,   305,   391, 

394-6. 

—  IV.  of  Spain,  355-66. 
Chevalier,  249-50. 

Church  in  France,  202,  243-4,  253-5,  278. 
Clarke,  General,  141,  152,  154,  310. 
Clary,  Desiree,  74,  100,  n2,  171. 

—  Julie,  74,  100. 

Cleves,  Grand  Duke  of,  322.     See  Murat. 

Clichy,  Club  of,  155,  158. 

Coalitions,  European,  195,  308,  491. 

Coarseness  of  Napoleon,  251,  271-2,  427,  429, 

Colonna,  35. 

Compiegne,  409. 

Concordat,  244,  255,  257,  270,  278. 

Conegliano,  Duke  of,  310.     See  Moncey. 

Confederacy  of  the  Rhine,  321-2,  323-4, 

Congress  of  Vienna,  491. 

Consalvi,  Cardinal,  255. 

Conscriptions,  347. 

Consecration,  279-93. 

Constant,  Benjamin,  490,  510. 

—  Valet,  503,  457,  470,  473- 
Constitution  of  the  Year  III.,  107,  160. 

—  of  the  Year  VIII.,  224-6. 

—  of  1815,  490. 

Constitutional  Church,  253-5,  278. 
Continental  System,  320,  334,  352,  367,  383,  385, 

399,  417-25,  433-4. 
Contractors,  Army,  144. 
Copenhagen,  352. 
Corsica,  2-5. 

—  Napoleon's  love  of,  15,  17,  29,  34. 

—  Attempt  on,  93-4. 
Corte,  3,  85. 
Corunna,  377. 
Courcelles,  409. 
Craon,  465. 
Croisier,  187. 
Cromwell,  169. 

Cruelty  of  Napoleon,  183,  187-8,  191,  197,  378. 
Cruikshank,  426,  472. 


INDEX 


567 


Dalmatia,  Duke  of,  310.     See  Soult. 

David,  Louis,  285,  289,  295. 

Davoust,  327-8,  334,  340,  393-4,  439,  510,  515, 

527 
Denis,  Saint,  313. 
Desert,  Army  crossing,  191. 
Dessaix,  174,  231,  233. 
Destiny,  Napoleon's  belief  in,  381. 
Directory,  109. 

Disbelief  in  men  by  Napoleon,  217-18. 
Divorce  of  Napoleon,  400-6. 
Doulcet,  101-2. 
Drake,  248. 
Dresden,  437-8,^55. 
Dube'n7"455".'          ^ 
Dubois,  Crance,  123. 
Duchesne,  355. 
Dugommier,  76. 
Dumerbion,  86,  102. 
Dumolard,  157. 
Duplicity  of  Napoleon,   140,  145,  157,  196,  203, 

230,  299,  323,  348,  356,  429. 
Dupont,  355. 
Duroc,  310,  361,  436,  439,  450. 

East,   Bonaparte's  mind  turned   to,  102-3,    165, 

181,  185. 
Eckmlihl,  395. 

Egypt,  168,  1 74-85 >  194-7,  269. 
El  Arish,  187 

Elba,  474,  475-83,  484,  519- 
Enghien,  Duke  of,  264-6,  277,  518,  526. 
England,  Hatred  of,  168,  248-9,  269,  272,  476. 

—  Threatened  invasion  of,   165,   272,  294,  297, 

321,  332,  352. 
English,  Arrest  of,  in  France,  263-4. 
Erfurt,  Meeting  at,  392-3. 
Escoiquiz,  359,  361-2. 
Etiquette  of  the  Court,  277,  279. 
Etruria,  Kingdom  of,  251. 
Eylau,  Battle  of,  343-4. 

Faubourg  S.  Germain,  248. 
Feltri,  Duke  of,  310.     See  Clarke. 
Ferdinand,  Prince  of  Asturias,  356-62. 
Fesch,  Joseph,  6,  20,  29,  67,  82,  no,  317,  354. 
Finances,  Reorganisation  of,  229. 
Flachat,  Campagnie,  144. 
Fontainebleau,  Chateau,  279,  400-2,  470. 

—  Treaty  of,  352,  357,  376. 
Fontaines,  239,  251. 
Forged  notes,  399. 

Fouche,  78,  248,   250,   264,  267,  290,  299,  311, 

376,  491.  508. 
Foures,  Pauline,  216. 
Fox,  320,  347. 


Francis  II.,   Emperor,  301,  302,  305,  322,  373, 

392-3,  455»  482. 
Frederick  Augustus  of  Saxony,  447. 
—  William  III.,  324,  331,  344,  348-51. 
Frejus,  197,  479. 

Freron,  83,  96,  105,  172,  221.  , 

Fi-iedland,  Battle  of,  3^7. 
Friuli,  Duke  of,  310,     .S>£  Duroc. 
Fructidor,  i8th  of,  160. 

Gap,  484. 

Gaza,  187. 

Genoa,  2,  86-9,  130,  132,  226,  231-3. 

Gerard,  256,  285,  301,  538. 

Gillray,  263,  271,  426. 

Godoy,  355-6. 

Gohier,  200,  203. 

Great  S.  Bernard,  231. . 

Grenoble,  484,  486,  489. 

Gretry,  428. 

Gros,  306. 

Grouchy,  497,  505-6. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  374. 

Hal,  497. 

Hall,  Capt.  Basil,  524. 

Haller,  88,  145,  176. 

Hamburg,  229,  321,  333-4. 

Hanover,  270,  311,  320-3,  444. 

Hanse  Towns,  321,  323,  444. 

Hatzfeld,  Prince,  328,  331. 

Hawkesbury,  Lord,  262,  268. 

Hedonville,  General,  242. 

Helena,  S.,  516-34. 

Hoche,  General,  147-51,  156,  159. 

Hofer,  518. 

Holland,  226,  270,  316,  382-90. 

Idealisation  of  Napoleon,  381. 

Insolence  of  Napoleon,  263,  272,  280, 

Ionian  Islands,  382. 

Isabey,  279,  281,  283. 

Istria,  Duke  of,  310.     See  Bessieres. 

Italy,  Army  of,  122,  14T,  145. 

—  Pillage  of,  133,  143. 

Jacobins,  62,  105,  109,  203,  224,  230,   248,  266, 

319- 

Jaffa,  187,  189,  192-3. 

Jena,  Battle  of,  327-8,  392. 

Jews,  343. 

John,  Archduke,  305,  396. 

Josephine,  1 12-21,   153,   169,   172,  212,  214-18, 

240-2,  265,  279,  280,  281-9,  492. 
Joubert,  200. 
Jouberton,  Mme.,  312-13. 


568        THE    LIFE   OF   NAPOLEON   BONAPARTE 


Jourdan,  128,  131,  136,  147. 

Jung,  Colonel,  95. 

Junot,  General,  81,  90,  93,  95,    loi,   124,    129, 

215,  235-6,  263,  301,  352-3,  426. 
—  Madame,    20,    101,    199,  216,  221-2,  236-7, 

263,  282-6,  332. 

Kellermann,  General,  130-1,  144,  231,  233. 
Kleber,  General,  139,  196-7,  217,  235,  527. 
Koerner,  451. 
Kosciuszko,  236. 

Labedoyere,  Colonel,  486,  490,  510. 

Lacombe,  63-6,  85,  95,  112. 

Lafayette,  245,  508,  513. 

Laforest,  323. 

Lanfrey,  70,  133.  234,  277. 

Lannes,  General,  176,  231,  278,   311,   340,  393, 

396,  428,  450. 
Lareveillere,  Lepeaux,  109. 
Las  Cases,  522,  525,  520. 
Lavallette,  159,  160,  194,  274,  493,  508,  515. 
La  Vendee,  242,  244. 
Le  Brun,  General,  310. 
Leclerc,  221. 
Lefebvre,  General,  393. 
Legations,  278. 
Leghorn,  133,  152. 
Legion  of  Honour,  257,  294-5. 
Leipzig,  Battle  of,  458. 
Leoben,  Treaty  of,  152-4. 
Letourneur,  109. 
Lichtenstein,  Prince,  305. 
Ligny,  Battle  of,  497,  505,  510. 
Lobau,  Isle  of,  396. 
Lodi,  Battle  of,  130. 
Longwood,  520-1,  523,  534,  52^. 
Loretto,  143. 

Louis  XVIIL,  277,  448,  481,  486,  493. 
Louise,  Queen,  331-2,  349. 
Lowe,  Sir  Hudson,  522-4,  528-9. 
Lucca  Piombino,  Duchy  of,  310.     See  Elise  Bona- 
parte. 
Lucchesini,  323. 
Liitzen,  Battle  of,  450. 
Lying  Habits  of   Napoleon,    188,    191,   327-31, 

371,  376,  430,  525-7. 
Lyons,  28,  478,  486. 

Macdonald,  Marshal,  234,  445,  472-3,  486. 
Mack,  General,  300-1, 
Madrid,  358-9,  377. 
Maitland,  Captain,  515,  518. 
Malmaison,  229,  405,  492,  510,  515. 
Malta,  164,  177,  261-2,  270. 
Mamelukes,  179,  181. 


Manege  Club,  200. 

Mantua,  132,  134-6,  147,  231. 

Marbeuf,  Comte  de,  4,  6,  11,  .16,  17,  23,  28. 

Marbot,  General,  201,  365. 

Marchand,  Valet,  537. 

Marengo,  Battle  of,  231,  233-4. 

Maret,  General,  310,  465,  471,  473. 

Marie  Louise,  400-1,  409-10,  414,  417,  419,  469, 

482,  492. 
Marmont,  90,  95,  124,  300,  469,  489. 
Marriage  of  Joseph  Bonaparte,  6,  74. 

—  Napoleon,  6,  120,  279,  406. 
Marseillais,  The,  58. 
Marseilles,  58,  6^,  74,  82-3,  95. 

Massena,  86,   124,   135,    196,   230-2,   311,  393, 

450,  527. 
Masson,  Frederic,  6,  17,  33,  381. 
Max  Joseph  of  Bavaria,  273- 
Melas,  231,  233,  372. 
Memorial  de  S.  Heli'ne,  525,  528. 
Metternich,  Prince,  391,  452. 
Milan,  130,  231-2,  244,  298. 
Military  School,  Brienne.     See  Brienne. 

—  Paris,  19,  23. 

Military  system  reorganised,  123. 

Mission,  Napoleon's  belief  in  his,  377-81, 

Modena,  142,  163. 

Monaco,  Prince  of,  484. 

Moncey,  310,  355, 

Monopolies,  414,  424. 

Montebello,  152, 

—  Duke  of,  311.     See  Lannes, 
Montereau,  Battle  of,  465. 
Montholon,  Baron  de,  255,  522,  535,  537. 
Montmirail,  Battle  of,  465. 

Moral  forces  not  understood  by  Napoleon,  367. 
Moreau,    General,    128,    131,    136,    147-8,    158, 
203-4,  221,  230,  234,  236,  237,  267-8,  527. 
Mortier,  General,  311,  469. 
Moscow,  439-41,  443- 
Murat,   General,   124,    130,   132,  210,  289,  322, 

324,  334,  337,  357-9,  377,  439-40,  442,  449, 

460,  483,  495,  527. 
Mussulman,  Napoleon  postures  as,  179,  195. 
Myths   fabricated   relative   to  Napoleon,   192-3, 

211-12,  331,  522,  538. 


Naples,  132,  136,  270,  309,  316-17,  334,  2,77. 

—  Queen  of,  141,  331,  356,  374. 

Nasica,  47. 

National  feeling  roused,  369-70,  415. 

National  Guard,  36,  108,  460. 

Nelson,  Lord,  180. 

Neufchatel,  Prince  of,  310.     See  Berthier. 

Nevers,  476, 

Ney,  Marshal,  221,  442,  475,  510,  527. 


INDEX 


569 


Nice,  86,  89,  122. 
Niemen,  Passage  of,  439. 
North  German  Bund,  324. 


Old  Guard,  Farewell  to,  476-7- 

Oldenburg,  434,  444- 

O'Meara,  Doctor,  525,  529-30. 

Orgon,  478. 

Otranto,  Duke  of,  331.     See  Fouche. 

Oudinot,  General,  475,  527. 


Palm,  Execution  of,  323. 

Paoli,   General,  3-4,  n,  26,  29,  32-8,  40,  56, 

60-7. 
Paris,  Distress  in,  100. 

—  Napoleon  enters,  19,  50,  95,  165,  203,  308,  309, 

391,  459,  489,  507. 
Parma,  130. 

—  Duke  of,  310.     See  Cambaceres. 
Patriotism  evoked,  369-71,  415,  445-6. 
Patterson,  Elizabeth,  314-15. 
Peraldi,  46,  47. 

Permits,  333. 

Permon,  Albert,  21,  91,  1 15,  167. 

—  family,  20-3,  98-100. 

—  Mme.,  loi,  115,  199,  215. 
Petulance  of  Napoleon,  21-2,  286,  412. 
PhiHppeaux,  22. 

Piacenza,  Duke  of,  310.     See  Le  Brun. 
Pichegru,  General,  155,  267. 
Pitt,  320,  347. 
Pius  VI.,  243,  254. 

—  VII.,  243,  277-9,  290,  315,  355,  412,  415. 
Plague,  189,  192-4. 

Poland,  336-51,  417. 

Poles,  Proclamation  to,  337. 

Police,  Secret,  242. 

Politeness,  Lack  of,  in  Napoleon,  251. 

Pontecorvo,  Prince  of,  310.     See  Bernadotte. 

Portugal,  229,  271,  352-3,  355,  366,  374,  418. 

Pozzo  di  Borgo,  35,  47. 

Presburg,  Treaty  of,  306,  324. 

Press  Laws,  261. 

Priest,  Interview  with,  477-8. 

Prince  of  the  Peace,  356-8,  360-1. 

Proclamations,  Manufacture  of,  338. 

—  to  Army.     See  Army. 

Prussia,  320-35,  347-8,  352,  373,  435,  437,  445- 

50,  455-6. 
Pultusk,  339. 


Quasdanovich,  134. 
Quatre  Bras,  Battle  of,  497. 
Quenza,  46-8,  53. 


Rapp,  General,  444,  450. 

Ratisbon,  395.  .«    ..r^vgns  ■.::_ 

Religion  in  France,  142.  -   "^ 

—  of  Napoleon,  253,  257,  i^'i>Z''^^\^^^^^^^^    ^3"^ 

Remusat,  Mme.  de,  116,  247.    —    '  -_^ -  V3fla 

Republics  founded  and  unmade,  382. 
Reviews,  237. 

Rhenish  Confederacy,  321,  323. 

Ricord,  88. 

Rivoli,  Battle  of,  134,  147. 

—  Duke  of,  311.     6"^.?  Massena. 
Robespierre,  83,  87-90,  96. 
Rochefort,  515. 
Roger-Ducos,  200,  224. 
Rome,  142-3,  171,  354,  412-16. 
Rousseau,  4,  28. 

Roustan,  27. 

Rovigo,  Duke  of,  310.     See  Savary. 

Russia,  374. 

—  Invasion  of,  433-43. 


Saint-Elma,  Ida,  221. 

Salicetti,  35-6,  38,  56,  60,  63-4,  68,  73,  82,  85-6, 

88-92,  98-100,  lOI. 
Sardinia,  56-60. 

Savary,  193,  266,  310,  359-60,  523. 
Saveria,  8. 

Scherer,  General,  95,  102,  122,  124. 
Schwarzenberg,  Prince,  455,  462,  464,  515. 
Serurier,  General,  135,  389. 
Seurre,  Statue  by,  312. 
Sieyes,  155,  164,  200-1,  209,  224. 
Simon,  Abbe,  13. 
Smith,  Sir  Sidney,  189,  193. 
Smolensk,  439,  441. 
Soissons,  465. 

Souk,  Marshal,  310,  455,  527. 
Spain,  271,  352,  355-68,  370-1,  374. 
Spies  employed,  264,  323. 
Star  of  Napoleon,  478. 
Stein,  Baron,  324. 
Stendhal,  103. 
Suicide,  Attempted,  474. 
Sweden,  352,  374,  424,  434- 
Switzerland,  176,  196,  229,  270,  382. 
Syria,  186-95. 

Talleyrand,  164-5,  266-7,  277,  279,  348,  365-6, 

376,  461-2,  526-7. 
Tallien,  105,  116,  120. 

—  Mme.,  105,  115-16. 
Temporal  power  abolished,  413. 

—  restored,  415-16. 

Tilsit,  Peace  of,  316,  348-51. 
Timidity  of  Napoleon,  247-8,  265. 


570        THE    LIFE    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPARTE 


Toulon,  68,  73-83. 

Toussaint,  I'Ouverture,  518. 

Trafalgar,  309. 

Treviso,  Duke  of,  310.     See  Mortier. 

Trieste,  455. 

Tuileries,  50-2,  239-40,  280,  489,  491. 

Tuscany,  133,  141. 

Ungenerous  conduct  of  Napoleon,  328-31. 

Valence,  24-8,  41-3,  478. 

Vendemiaire,  13th  of,  105-11. 

Vendetta,  3. 

Vendome  column,  309. 

Venetia,  163. 

Venice,  15 1-2. 

Vernet,  Horace,  328. 

Verona,  132,  134. 

Vicenza,  Duke  of,  310.     See  Caulaincourt. 

Victor,  Marshal,  310. 

Vienna,  Treaty  of,  400,  418. 


Vienna,  entered  by  Napoleon,  301,  395. 
Villeneuve,  Admiral,  268,  297. 
Violet,  Symbol  of,  481. 
Volney,  44. 

Wagram,  Battle  of,  396,  400. 

—  Prince  of,  409.     See  Berthier. 
Walewska,  Countess,  344,482. 

Warsaw,  337,  339,  344. 

—  Grand  Duchy  of,  351,  417-18. 
Washington,  General,  239, 
Wellesley,  Sir  Arthur,  366. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  417-18,  496-506,  510,  515. 

Whitworth,  Lord,  263. 

Women,  Napoleon's  rudeness  to,  331-2.       / 

Wright,  Captain,  267-8. 

Wiirtemberg,  Duke  created  King,  306,  373. 

Wiirmser,  134-5. 

Yorck,  General,  445. 

Znaim,  Treaty  of,  396. 


WILLIAM    BRENDON    AND   SON,    LTD. 
PRINTERS,    PLYMOUTH 


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